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^tantoooU JJier 


THE CRASHAW BROTHERS. (A Story for Boys.) 
Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $1.50. 

THE NEW BOY. (A Story for Boys.) Illustrated. 
Crown 8vo, ^1.50. 

THE YOUNG IN HEART. (A Book of Essays.) Nar- 
row lamo, $1.25, net. Postage 10 cents. 

HARDING OF ST. TIMOTHY’S. (A Story for Boys.) 
Illustrated. Crown 8vo, ^1.50. 

THE ANCIENT GRUDGE. (A Novel.) Crown 8vo, 
^1.50- 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
Boston and New York 


THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 






KEATING LEAPED AND REACHED (p. 178 ) 


THE CEASHAW 
BROTHERS 


BY 


ARTHUR STANWOOD PIER 

•I 


AUTHOR OF “HARDING OF ST. TIMOTHY’S,” “bOYS OF 

ST. timothy’s,” “the new boy,” etc. 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
(^\)t CamtinDae 

1910 



COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY ARTHUR STANWOOD PIER 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published October iqio 



©GI.A273280 


CONTENTS 


I. The Game with the Sixth . . . . 1 

II. The Left Tackle 27 

III. The Weak Spot 48 

IV. In Vacation . . . . . . 71 

V. The Captain of the Crew . . . .87 

VI. A St. John’s Champion .... 112 

VII. Farewell to a Hero 130 

VIII. Sheldon’s Successor 154 

IX. The Eleventh Inning 171 


X. The Pinch Hitter 


183 


% 


THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


CHAPTER I 

THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 

I T was noon of the first day of the fall term 
at St. Timothy’s. Most of the boys had 
dispersed after the morning recitations, but 
on the steps of the Study sat Guy Blanchard, 
watching Jim Payne and Fred Bell throwing 
a ball back and forth. Blanchard knew that, 
as Secretary of the Pythians, he ought to be 
canvassing the new boys, trying to secure the 
most promising as members ; but it was pleas- 
ant and warm in the sun, he had not seen 
Jim and Fred for three months, and it was 
tempting to linger while they chaffed each 
other and himself. 

Burn it in now, Fred ; ah, go on, burn 
it ! ” entreated Payne; and in response to this 
urging, the ball came singing and buried it- 
self in his glove with a comfortable thud. 


2 


THE CKASHAW BROTHEKS 


Lost your speed, have n’t you, Fred ? ” 
Blanchard’s tone was commiserating. 

Glass arm, sure enough,” lamented Payne. 

Is that so now ! ” 

Bell unlimbered his long length and threw 
a ball so swift that Payne, getting the force 
of it on his bare hand, danced and shook his 
fingers. 

Say, just ease off a little, will you, Fred ? ” 
he asked ; and then Blanchard, laughing, rose 
and walked away towards the School, in pur- 
suit of his duty. 

Just outside the Study gate he met a strong- 
looking, light-haired boy with a pleasant, 
freckled face ; he stopped him at once. 

Hello, new kid ! What ’s your name? ” 

Crashaw — Edward Crashaw.” 

That’s a queer name. Any relation to 
Crashaw at St. John’s?” 

“ Brother.” 

The dickens you say ! ” Blanchard stared 
at him, then seized him by the arm as if afraid 
he might escape, and turning shouted to the 
ball-players, — 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 3 


Hey, Jim ! Fred ! Come and see what I Ve 
found.” 

The captive Crashaw grinned and made no 
attempt to get away. He seemed big enough 
to free himself if he cared to — more sturdy 
and heavy than Blanchard, even though a 
year or two younger. But he remained quiet 
in Blanchard’s grasp and offered the two boys 
who came up a cheerful smile. 

What is it, Blanche ? ” said Jim Payne. 

Guess what it is ! ” cried Blanchard. It 
says it ’s a brother of Crashaw of St. John’s.” 

Charley Crashaw — St. John’s captain ? ” 

They looked at the stranger with widening 
eyes. 

Yes.” His grin became deprecating. I 
^dmit it.” 

“That ’s funny,” remarked Bell. “ How did 
you happen to come to St. Timothy’s then ? ” 

“ Oh, Charley and I are always scrapping — 
always on opposite sides,” Crashaw answered. 

“ I ’m always scrapping with my kid bro- 
ther,” said Blanchard. “ But I would n’t let 
him go to St. John’s.” 


4 


THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Charley did n’t stand for my coming to 
St. Timothy’s. But he’s too much the king 
at St. John’s. It would n’t be any liun to go 
there and be passed along up, just as Charley’s 
brother.” 

Why, you ’d have had a cinch,” declared 
Payne. I don’t see why you did n’t do it.” 

W ell, that ’s why. It made Charley awfully 
peevish. He said I was disgracing the family.” 

The boys bristled. 

St. John’s is a pretty good school,” said 
Blanchard. ^^But the fellows there get so 
cocky about it they make me tired.” 

^‘We’d have licked them in football last 
year if it hadn’t been for your brother.” 
Payne’s voice betrayed resentment. ‘^He had 
no right to get round Tom Stevens on that 
criss-cross the way he did.” 

* He ’s a peach of a quarterback,” acknow- 
ledged Blanchard. Are you any good at the 
game ? ” 

I ’ve played some. But I guess I ’ll never 
be in Charley’s class.” 

What position ? ” 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 5 


Tackle.” 

I ’ll book you for the Pjthians/’ said 
Blanchard. ^‘You’ll join the Pythians — not 
the Corinthians; understand?” 

Just as you say,” replied Crashaw. Do 
you mind telling me who you are ? ” 

This is Payne, and this is Bell, and my 
name ’s Blanchard.” 

Are you the Blanchard that ’s captain and 
quarterback of the St. Timothy’s eleven ? ” 

The same.” 

Are you really ! ” Crashaw surveyed him 
with frank and flattering interest; then he 
turned to the others. Are you the Bell that 
pitches on the nine ? ” 

Even so,” said Bell. 

‘^But he’s never heard of me,” sighed 
Payne dolefully. 

I have if you ’re the captain of the nine.” 

Are n’t we the celebrated bunch, though ! ” 
exclaimed Payne with admiration. 

They were all somewhat swelled up with 
pleasure and pride, and went away entertain- 
ing an unusually high opinion of the new 


6 


THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


kid/’ They talked about him among them- 
selves and among their friends, and agreed 
that in choosing St. Timothy’s instead of St. 
John’s he had shown a very proper, independ- 
ent spirit, and deserved to be encouraged in 
every way possible. Besides, he was an attract- 
ive boy, with his frank eyes and humorous 
smile and quiet voice. 

Meanwhile, Edward Crashaw was making 
himself at home among the members of his 
own form. There as well as among the older 
fellows the name of Crashaw carried weight ; 
and a certain romantic interest attached to 
one who had broken away as he had done 
from traditions and conventions. In a few 
days, though a new boy, he was as popular 
and as well known as any one in the form. 
One thing that contributed to this result was 
his easy manner of adapting himself to con- 
ditions and assuming leadership. 

The September afternoons were warm, too 
warm to encourage an interest in football; 
the boys played tennis and organized scrub 
baseball games. Edward and a tall slim fellow 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 7 


named Keating and a stocky pink-cheeked 
boy named Lawrence were the baseball en- 
thusiasts of the Fourth Form ; they happened 
to be assigned seats at the same table and 
early came to know one another. In all the 
study recesses they would be out passing a 
ball back and forth ; in the afternoons they 
collected their friends and had scrub games in 
a corner of the big athletic field. 

Edward was much the best of them ; he had 
caught on a nine that summer at the seashore, 
he had a keen eye, and was a naturally free, 
hard hitter — and besides he loved the game. 
So in a very few days he had established him- 
self as the baseball leader of the form ; and 
now and then some of the older fellows would 
pause to look on at those Fourth Form con- 
tests and would carry the word to Bell and 
Payne that the youngsters were pretty good, 
and that Crashaw anyway was a real ball- 
player. 

I tell you what I ’d like to do,” said Ed- 
ward one afternoon as he walked with Law- 
rence and Keating down to the field. I ’d 


8 


THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


like to get up a Fourth Form nine and chal- 
lenge the Sixth.” 

‘‘Let’s do it/’ said Lawrence promptly. 
“ You ’ll catch and I ’ll pitch — what?” 

“ Yes, and Keat on first and Gordon on 
second and — I ’ll see the fellows about it to- 
day and find out how it strikes them.” 

“ Of course the Sixth will beat us,” said 
Keating. “With Payne and Bell, the regular 
School battery, and some of those other big 
fellows.” 

“We can make them hustle,” declared Ed- 
ward. “And it would be good fun to have 
a real match game instead of playing scrub all 
the time.” 

Not only Keating and Lawrence but all the 
other fellows whom he asked agreed with 
him. Before the afternoon was over they had 
elected him captain and authorized him to 
make arrangements if possible for a game with 
the Sixth Form on the following Saturday. 

“It would be just like them to turn us 
down,” said Keating. “ They ’ll probably tell 
you you ’re fresh to suggest such a thing.” 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 9 


Keating was a new boy who did not know 
any Sixth Formers and looked upon them all 
as cold and snobbish. 

‘‘ Not much they won’t/’ said Lawrence, who 
was not a new boy. ‘‘ They ’ll think they can bat 
us all over the lot, and that it will give them 
something to jolly us about the rest of the year.” 

Well, maybe it will,” said Edward. ^^But 
it will be fun just the same — especially if the 
fellows in the Fourth who don’t play will 
come out on the side-lines and yell for us.” 

Lawrence snickered to himself. I tell you 
what would be great,” he said. Let ’s get a 
rise out of the Fifth Form. It ’s a poor form, 
you know — hardly any good athletes in it. 
Let ’s challenge the Sixth to play us for the 
championship of the School. That will make 
the Fifth so sore they ’ll bite.” 

That idea did not interest Edward espe- 
cially, though it made him laugh. The game 
was the thing that appealed to him. He went 
to Blanchard before study that afternoon ; he 
felt that he knew Blanchard a little better 
than he did Bell or Payne, and moreover that 


10 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Blanchard might be more approachable than 
either of those fellows. He said to him, — 

We ’ ve got a Fourth Form baseball nine 
that we think is pretty good, and we ’d like 
to challenge the Sixth Form to a game next 
Saturday. Do you think you could get up a 
nine and play us ? ” 

I don’t see why not,” Blanchard replied. 
^^It ought to be good sport. ITl ask Jim 
Payne and Fred Bell about it; they’re our 
baseball stars. How does it come that you ’re 
one? That’s one thing your brother never 
did, is n’t it ? ” 

Oh, Charley plays a little. But he never 
was very good at it. In the summer he sails 
and plays tennis — and in the spring at St. 
John’s he rows. So he ’s not had much chance 
to play ball. But I always liked it.” 

Blanchard looked at the boy’s eager face and 
honest eyes with a smile ; somehow he found 
himself liking young Edward Crashaw very 
much — just as he had always liked Charles 
Crashaw, even in conflict. But he could not 
forbear teasing Edward a little. 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 11 


“ You ’re pretty up and coming for a new 
kid, are n’t you — organizing a ball nine and 
challenging the Sixth the first week you’ve 
been in the School ! ” 

Oh,” said Edward, flushing, you think 
I ’ve been fresh ! ” 

I did n’t say that ; I said I thought you 
were an enterprising young hustler.” Blanch- 
ard’s eyes were twinkling. 

I suppose it might have been better if I ’d 
let one of the old boys in the Fourth run the 
thing,” admitted Edward. ^^Only I never 
thought of that. I was so interested in get- 
ting up the game, and when I suggested it 
they all wanted me to go ahead with it.” 

Good thing they did, too,” was Blanchard’s 
comment. None of those other kids would 
have gumption enough. Don’t you worry; 
nobody thinks you ’re fresh, Crashaw.” 

At that assurance Edward’s face cleared, 
and he went off to report the success of his 
negotiations to his friends. Blanchard laughed 
in telling Bell and Payne about it. 

Funny such a husky, beefy lad should be 


12 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


so sensitive ; his face flamed right up when he 
thought I was calling him fresh ; his feelings 
were awfully hurt.” 

If he thinks he and his kindergarten nine 
can beat us, his feelings are going to be worse 
hurt,” said Bell. I guess we will take his 
Fourth Form nine on all right.” 

So the challenge was definitely accepted, 
and at Mr. Elwood’s table, where sat Edward 
and Keating and Lawrence, there was great 
excitement that night. And that evening dur- 
ing the study hour, Lawrence, instead of work- 
ing over the Virgil which lay open on his desk, 
engaged himself for some minutes in lettering 
a placard, which he afterwards hung on the 
bulletin-board in the hall. It read as follows : 

THE FOURTH FORM NINE 
Will Play 

THE SIXTH FORM NINE 
For the 

SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP 

On Saturday, September 25. 

Free Seats Reserved for 

The Fifth Form. 


Per order. 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 13 


The notice stayed on the bulletin-hoard until 
the next morning, when it was discovered and 
torn down by some indignant Fifth Formers. 

They think you did it/’ Lawrence an- 
nounced gleefully to Edward at dinner that 
day. My, but they ’re hot about it ! ” 

Why do they put it on me ? ” Edward 
asked. 

Oh, they ’ve heard that it was you that 
got up the game, and they think this was just 
part of it.” 

I should think you ’d better claim the credit 
that belongs to you,” Keating remarked dryly. 

I ’m willing,” Lawrence laughed. “ Spread 
it round if you want to. But I guess it ’s too 
late. The Fifth Form are all saying Cra- 
shaw ’s the freshest thing that ever came down 
the pike. They ’re all going out to root for the 
Sixth in the game.” 

We ’U have to get the whole Fourth Form 
out then to back us up,” said Edward. 

^^The way the Fifth are feeling, there’s 
likely to be a riot.” Lawrence seemed to rejoice 
at the prospect. 


14 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


the Fifth are angry at Crashaw for 
something he did n’t do, I think you ought to 
let him out of it/’ declared Keating. 

Oh, I ’m proud to be considered the author. 
I think the notice was mighty good — wish I 
could have thought it up,” said Edward. 

As long as Edward felt that way about it, 
Lawrence decided that the authorship of the 
notice might be worth claiming, and he pro- 
ceeded at once to assert it. In consequence he 
was denounced as cheap enough by some of 
his Fifth Form friends, while others abated 
not at all their resentment against the in- 
nocent Crashaw ; well, they said, perhaps he 
did n’t actually write the notice, but he must 
have known about it, and anyway it was he 
who had the effrontery to challenge the Sixth 
Form and ignore the Fifth, and that was a 
fresh enough thing for any Fourth Former, 
much less a new kid, to do. It just showed 
that he had the regular bumptious St. John’s 
spirit in him ; he ought to have gone to St. 
John’s like his brother. 

That was the way the conservative and in- 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 15 


censed Fifth Formers talked among themselves, 
and they resolved to avenge themselves upon 
the ambitious youngsters during the game. 

Some rumors of their sentiments and pre- 
parations came to Edward, but nothing de- 
finite ; the fellows in the Sixth Form whom he 
knew, like Blanchard and Bell and Payne, 
could have enlightened him if they had chosen, 
for with them some of the aggrieved Fifth 
Formers were quite confidential. But they re- 
mained silent, partly because they did n’t see 
any use in hurting Crashaw’s feelings, and 
partly too because they did n’t want to spoil the 
prospective fun. Edward himself was so busy 
practising with his nine the two days before 
the game that he had neither thoughts nor 
ears for anything else. 

He was therefore somewhat surprised on 
Saturday afternoon when he went out on the 
field to find the Fifth Form squatting all 
along the first-base line, several of them armed 
with shotguns, one with a small cannon, and 
others already making dismal noises with tin 
horns. 


16 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


The non-combatants of the Sixth Form were 
also massed with them, making a display of 
numbers far more impressive than that afforded 
by the Fourth Form supporters on the third- 
base line, to whom a few curious and unde- 
sired small boys of the First and Second and 
Third Forms had attached themselves. 

During the few minutes of field practice 
the Fourth Form nine had an opportunity to 
accustom themselves to what was to come — 
abusive comments, derisive cheers, personal 
remarks of the most unflattering kind. Keating 
at first base was naturally the most direct re- 
cipient of these, but he kept working away 
with the wad of chewing-gum in his mouth 
and otherwise never changed a muscle of his 
face — not even when the fellows just behind 
him condoled with him on being so pigeon-toed 
and urged him not to walk on his ankle-bones. 

The game began with the Sixth Form in 
the field — Bell pitching, Payne catching, 
Blanchard at shortstop, Durant at second 
base, and Watts at first. It was a very quiet 
inning, and Edward began to think that per^ 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 17 


haps the demonstration for which the spec^ 
tators had prepared was going to fizzle out. 

His men did nothing at the bat that inning. 
Lawrence, who was first up, struck out. 

Ah, but he ’s such a wag ! ’’ some Fifth 
Form voice cried soothingly. 

Dunbar, who followed Lawrence, popped up 
a fly which Durant caught ; and then Winslow 
hit an easy grounder to the pitcher. 

0 easy marks ! ” jeered the Fifth and 
Sixth Form crowd as Edward and his players 
took the field. 

Then with the first ball pitched, the din be- 
gan ; the horns tooted, the whistles blew, the 
jeers for the pitcher, the catcher, and the first 
baseman became continuous. Blanchard, the 
first batter, took his base on balls, and Edward 
walked out to hand the ball to Lawrence and 
steady his nerves. 

Take him out, take him out ! He ’s cracked 
already ! ” yelled the Fifth Form. 

The next moment Edward, with a lightning 
throw to Keating, caught Blanchard far off 
first base. 


18 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Dreaming, dreaming ! ’’ sang Keating as 
he put the ball to him; and then he turned 
to the crowd behind him, which had been 
momentarily shocked into quiet. 

“ Keep up your noise, fellows,^’ he said. 

You T1 wake your men after a while.’’ 

They began again when Durant hit a high 
fly to Dunbar in right field ; just as it was 
falling into Dunbar’s hands, all the whistles, 
the horns, the three shotguns and the cannon 
went off, and Dunbar dropped the ball. Amid 
more noise Lawrence gave Bell his base, and 
then Watts advanced both Durant and Bell by 
a sacrifice. Payne came to the bat and drove 
in two runs by a hit to left field ; a moment 
later, however, the side was out when Cary hit 
the ball into Keating’s hands. 

Let ’em yell,” said Edward to Lawrence. 
“We’ll soon get used to their noise, and you 
won’t mind it a bit.” 

Edward was the first man at bat that inn- 
ing. Bell knew instinctively as he confronted 
him that here was a fellow who could hit the 
ball. He recognized the dangerous batter by 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 19 


his pose, by the unperturbed steady eye and 
motionless waiting bat. 

With the intention of shaking his con- 
fidence and scaring him back from the plate, 
Bell sent a swift inshoot, but he did not 
place it accurately; Edward received it in the 
ribs with a grunt and trotted down to first 
base. 

One for his St. John’s brother,” cried a 
Fifth Former vindictively. 

I wish he ’d got it instead of me,” said 
Edward, grinning and rubbing his side. 

On the next ball pitched he was off for 
second. Durant stood squarely in the way ; 
Edward slid into him feet first just as he was 
catching the ball and upset him ; and Edward 
was safe at second base amid the delighted 
shrieks of the Fourth Form and the violent 
demands of the Fifth and Sixth : ^^Put him 
out ! Mucker ball ! Take him out ! ” 

Durant got to his feet, furious. 

Don’t play any of your dirty St. John’s 
tricks here,” said Durant. 

Dirty nothing ! ” said Edward, dusting off 


20 THE CEASHAW BROTHERS 


his clothes. If you stand square in the base- 
line, of course I T1 run into you.” 

Don’t be fresh,” Durant admonished him. 

Edward paid no attention to that, but shout- 
ed down to Avery, who was the next batter : 

Pitcher ’s easy, Avery ; you can hit it.” 

Avery made a good sacrifice and Edward 
reached third, and on another sacrifice by 
Hunter he scored. The Fourth Form were 
plucking up courage, and were cheering 
bravely, but that was the only run they made 
until the fifth inning ; and meanwhile the 
Sixth Form had scored four more. 

In the fifth inning, Keating, who had been 
playing a fine game in the field in spite of 
the disadvantages of his position, but who had 
been unable to hit the ball, was first at bat. 

One man gone already,” cried the first- 
base mob. 

But Keating waited patiently and fouled 
all the good balls and finally was given his 
base. 

Edward went down to coach him. Take 
a good lead, Keat ; take a good lead.” 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 21 

Lawrence came to the bat. 

Pitcher ’s easy, Laurie ; hope he improves 
before the St. John’s game next spring.” 

Even the Sixth Form laughed at that, and 
Bell waved at Edward an indulgent hand. But 
he was getting careless, and pretty soon he 
tossed Lawrence an easy one, and Lawrence 
hit it smartly into left field. Keating was on 
second base, Lawrence on first, no one was out; 
and the Fourth Form were beginning to shout 
vociferously. Dunbar came to the bat. 

Just as the ball was pitched, there was a 
flash from some one in the crowd near the 
batter and Dunbar stepped back helplessly 
from the plate. 

Strike ! ” called the umpire. 

Edward from the coaching-line had seen 
the flash and the instant bewildered look on 
Dunbar’s face. He walked towards the batter, 
calling, Wait till you get a good one, pick 
out the good one;” and then suddenly, just as 
Bell was delivering the ball, he made a dive 
and a grab and wrenched a pocket-mirror out 
of a big Sixth Former’s hand. 


22 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


That ’s one thing that ’s not fair/’ he said. 

I T1 give it to you after the game.” And he 
thrust it into his hip-pocket. 

The Sixth Former, a big, good-natured look- 
ing fellow, whose name Edward did not know, 
was dazed by this sudden audacity, and stood 
with nothing to say; then, after Edward had 
turned and resumed his coaching, his cheeks 
grew red. But although some of his friends 
crowded round and urged him vociferously, he 
made no move to recover his property. 

When Dunbar had struck out, as he did 
quite promptly, and Edward went to the bat, 
there was an outburst of derisive cries. 

Pishaw, P — shaw ! ” cried somebody. 

^^Pishaw, P — shaw, Freshy Crashaw! ” cried 
somebody else, and pretty soon the Fifth and 
Sixth Form crowd took up the cry and chanted 
it unctuously. 

Edward gave them a hurt, surprised look ; 
then his lips tightened and he faced Bell. 
They did not keep up their derisive chant very 
long, for Edward swung at the second ball 
pitched, and sent it on a beautiful swift rising 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 23 


line far over the centre-fielder’s head. Keating 
and Lawrence came home on a trot, and Ed- 
ward, sprinting round the bases, arrived almost 
as soon as they did ; it was a clean home run. 

It silenced the scoffers for that inning ; but 
at intervals afterward throughout the game, 
when nothing else occurred to them, and the 
Fourth Form was in the field or Edward was 
at the bat, they would start the chant, Pishaw, 
P — shaw ! Freshy Crashaw ! ” 

Edward couldn’t quite understand why they 
had singled him out as the object of their 
antipathy, but he tried to be cheerful, and he 
kept on playing just as hard as if his team 
stood a chance of winning. 

He was the only one on it who could hit 
Bell’s pitching, and though he drove in three 
more runs they were n’t of much value in 
the final result. Lawrence weakened, and the 
Fourth Form infield, with the exception of 
Keating, went to pieces in the seventh inning ; 
and when the game ended, the score was fifteen 
to seven for the Sixth. 

Edward was engaged in condoling with his 


24 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


players and receiving the expressions of good- 
will of some of the Fourth Form, when Payne 
and Blanchard and Bell came up to him. They 
broke through the more insignificant persons, 
and Payne seized Edward by the shoulders and 
said : — 

I Ve got you nailed down for a place on 
the nine next spring ; and don’t you forget 
it.” 

Oh, do you think so ? ” Edward’s face 
lighted up. 

Jing ! ” said Bell. I never in all my life 
threw them in to such a slugger.” 

I don’t wonder your brother was peevish 
at your not going to St. John’s,” said Blanch- 
ard. Now if you ’re only as good at foot- 
ball— !” 

Such praise was sweet to Edward’s ears. 
He was grateful to them for it, and to the 
fellows of his own form who crowded round 
him. The unkindness of the jeering crowd, the 
sting of being called fresh, of having an igno- 
minious rhyme made on his name, all vanished. 
And then he suddenly remembered. 


THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH 25 


Oh, I Ve got to give something to some- 
body/’ he cried, and broke away. 

He saw the Sixth Former from whom he 
had taken the pocket-mirror leaving the field 
with Durant. For a moment he hesitated ; 
Durant had spoken in a pretty nasty way to 
him during the game. But he ran up to them. 

Maybe I ought to apologize for snatching 
this the way I did,” he said, holding out the 
mirror. Then, because something in the ex- 
pression of the boy who took it won his con- 
fidence, he added on a whimsical impulse, I 
hope it has n’t inconvenienced you — my keep- 
ing it.” 

I have n’t especially cared to look at myself 
since then,” the boy confessed with a smile. 
^^You were all right, Crashaw.” 

Edward gave him a look of respect as he 
turned away. 

“ What was that ? ” asked Durant. And 
then Edward heard him continue in a loud, 
disgusted voice, Shelly, do you know, that ’s 
the freshest young pup ! ” 

Instantly all the pleasant things went out 


26 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


of Edward’s life ; there was the hurt, surprised 
feeling in his heart again, and the burning 
memory of the Fifth Form jeers ; he felt as if 
he had been branded, unjustly branded, with 
a name of infamy. 


CHAPTER II 


THE LEFT TACKLE 

"l^D WARD’S nature was not one that could 
remain long depressed over the thought 
that an injustice was being done him. He 
found too much that was new and exhilarating 
to occupy his mind. The very achievements 
which had brought down upon him the cen- 
sorious comments of some of the older boys 
had made him quite a hero in his own form. 
The old boys of the Fourth Form, like Law- 
rence, became his aggressive champions against 
the charge of freshness. 

Go on ! ” Lawrence said one day to a 
group of Fifth Formers, friends of his, who 
had been disparaging ^^Pishaw, P — shaw,” 
which was their name for Edward. Go on ! 
You ’re jealous. Crashaw ’s a bigger man than 
you ’ve got, and you know it. There is n’t a 
near athlete in your whole form. You take it 
as a personal insult if anybody gets out and 


28 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


does things better than you can; you think 
then that he ’s fresh.’’ 

That is n’t why we think you ’re fresh, 
Laurie,” retorted Tweed, one of the Fifth 
Formers. 

Before we ’d let a new kid — a new kid 
that ought to have gone to St. John’s, too — 
come into our form and boss us round ! ” vir- 
tuously observed Horne, another of the Fifth 
Formers. ^^I’m glad to think that we have 
some self-respect.” 

^^I’m surprised to think you have,” said 
Lawrence. 

They made a dash for him, but he turned 
and ran, and took refuge from them in the 
library. 

Blanchard, captain of the Pythians, and 
Durant, captain of the Corinthians, called 
out the football candidates on the same 
day. After the practice Blanchard told Ed- 
ward that he was promising — especially as 
it was a bad year for tackles. Durant’s 
the only first-class tackle in the School,” he 
said. was wondering whom I could put 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


29 


opposite him. Maybe you ’ll have to be the 
man.” 

Of course I ’ll be awfully glad if I can 
make the eleven/’ said Edward. ^‘I’d rather 
play against anybody than Durant, though.” 

Most fellows would. He ’s the best man 
the Corinthians have.” 

I was n’t thinking of that. He does n’t 
like me. I guess it won’t be very pleasant.” 

Why does n’t he like you ? ” 

Edward told of the altercation which they 
had had in the baseball game. 

Oh, that ’s nothing,” Blanchard said. 
^‘Durant’s quick-tempered — terribly quick- 
tempered.” 

He thinks I ’m fresh, I guess,” Edward 
answered. ^^He does n’t care for me anyhow; 
I know that. When we meet he nods in a 
way that makes me tired. If a fellow can’t 
smile a little when he nods, I ’d rather have 
him cut me altogether.” 

Well,” Blanchard laughed, you could n’t 
expect Durant to care for you very much, 
could you ? ” 


30 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


At that there was the questioning, hurt 
look in Edward’s eyes that always amused and 
touched the older boy. 

I don’t see why he should hate me,” said 
Edward. 

He feels probably that you ’ve been cor- 
rupted by evil associations,” Blanchard re- 
plied. When you were taken up more or 
less at the start by Jim Payne and Fred Bell 
and me, I guess that settled your prospects 
with Durant.” 

Oh ! Then you are not friends with him ?” 

Oh, yes ; we ’re friends.” Blanchard vol- 
unteered no explanation. 

‘^Do you know a fellow called Shelly?” 
Edward asked. ‘^A big fellow, sort of fat- 
faced and good-natured ? ” 

I certainly do. What about him ? ” 

He ’s a good fellow, I think.” 

Edward described the episode of the pocket- 
mirror, and Blanchard was convulsed with 
laughter. 

“ What ’s the matter ? ” Edward asked in 


surprise. 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


31 


Oh, nothing. I was only thinking, if you 
did that to Tom Sheldon — ” 

^^Was that Sheldon, the crew captain?” 

The same. Can you blame fellows for 
saying you ’re fresh ? ” 

Edward looked confused ; then he said. 
Well, I don’t care. It was the only thing 
to do.” 

Blanchard laughed again and patting him 
on the back, said, You ’re a great kid, Ned.” 

Anyway that little talk put Edward into 
good spirits ; and the next day he was writing 
to his brother at St. John’s as follows : — 

Dear Charley, — I ought to have writ- 
ten to you before this, but I have been so 
busy ; there has been so much going on. I 
asked Mother to send you my letters. I guess 
the joke is on me all right. I thought that by 
coming here I should be getting away from 
your influence, but it does n’t seem to be the 
least use. They all think that because I ’m 
your brother I must be some good, and they 
don’t treat me like a new kid at all. Blanch- 


32 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


ard calls me Ned, and I ’m calling him Guy 
now, and pretty soon I guess I will try calling 
him Blanche. He is a corker. He says I ’ll 
make the first Pithians ” (he had n’t yet 
learned how to spell it), and maybe the School 
eleven. He and Fred Bell and Jim Payne 
have the finest crowd here ; they are all dandy 
fellows, and although they ’re Sixth Formers 
and I ’m only in the Fourth, I know them 
all pretty well already. The Fourth Form 
had a meeting yesterday and elected me 
President. 

We had a little baseball game here — the 
Fourth against the Sixth. They licked us, fif- 
teen to seven, but it was pretty good fun. I 
caught for the Fourth and surprised myself 
and everybody else by getting a home run off 
Bell. He won’t let any St. John’s man do a 
thing like that, though, in a real game. 

Don’t I wish I could make the School 
eleven and buck up against you ! I bet I 
could nail you on one of those dashes they 
tell me so much about; I bet I would give 
you an ugly toss. 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


33 


I guess St. John’s is a pretty fair school, 
but it is n’t in it with St. Timothy’s. 

Affectionately, 

‘^Ned.” 

After a few days there came this reply : — 

Dear Kid, — Of course I am glad to 
hear that you are having a good time and 
getting on all right ; but when I think you 
might be having just as good a time here and 
getting on just as well, it makes me tired. 
The best thing that I know about your school 
is that they are doing so well by you. 

Is there really any chance of your making 
the St. Timothy’s eleven ? I hoped that this 
year we should find it would be a contest, at 
least. 

You might remember me to Blanchard 
and Bell and Payne sometime. I have run 
up against them, and they are mighty good 
fellows. Funny they should n’t have come to 
St. John’s. 

Affectionately, 

Charley.’’ 


34 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Edward transmitted these messages. 

We ’ll stand him on his head for that,” 
said Blanchard. Tell him I said so.” 

Gradually, from observation and from the 
gossip of the old boys, of Lawrence and others, 
Edward began to understand what Blanchard 
had meant by his remarks about Durant. It 
was apparent that Durant had his own faction 
in the School, and was jealous of the larger 
and more influential one led by Blanchard, 
into which Edward had been adopted. More- 
over, Durant had been a candidate for the 
captaincy of the School eleven and had lost 
to Blanchard by a narrow margin of votes ; 
with his quick, hot temper he had never quite 
won the confidence of the fellows as Blanch- 
ard had done. 

He had been bitterly disappointed by the 
defeat and had ever since maintained a rather 
distant manner toward the boy who had frus- 
trated his ambition. So it was natural enough 
that any protege of Blanchard’s should not 
advance far into Durant’s favor. 

Yet Edward could not help admiring Dur- 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


35 


ant. ‘‘ I guess he can do things ; I guess he 
can do just about anything he wants to/’ Ed- 
ward thought one day as he sat in chapel and 
looked across the aisle at Durant’s resolute, 
fine profile and handsome head. 

He was destined, he knew, to find out how 
well Durant could play football, and he did 
not relish that prospect. It was not so much 
that he shrank from a test which would de- 
monstrate his own inferiority as that he 
dreaded the encounter with Durant’s sharp 
tongue ; he felt sure that in the heat of the 
contest his opponent would become ugly. He 
expected to have jeering, sneering things said 
to him all through the game; to be called, 
^^Pishaw,” a nickname which he hated; to 
hear slurring remarks about his St. John’s 
affiliations, about his brother. 

But his apprehensions proved groundless. 
Durant disdained stooping to such methods to 
gall and irritate an opponent ; he might say 
ugly things in a flare-up of temper, but not 
by premeditation ; he played the game as a 
gentleman. Although he took a keen satisfac- 


36 THE CEASHAW BROTHEES 


tion in shoving Edward round and opening 
up big holes through him, he abstained from 
unpleasant remarks. 

Tom Sheldon was also on the Corinthian 
team, big, active, and good-natured ; once he 
hurst through when Edward had started to 
run with the ball and bore him to the earth. 
Then as he lay on him, he tried to force the 
ball from his grasp and murmured cajol- 

inglyj — 

Let me take care of it for you, Crashaw ; 
go on ; I ’ll let you have it after the game.” 

Edward hung on to it tighter — and liked 
Sheldon better than before. 

Throughout the Pythian-Corinthian series 
Edward performed creditably ; but he knew 
that the final victory of the Pythians was 
due to their supremacy elsewhere than at left 
tackle. He was afraid that on the School 
eleven left tackle would be assigned to Wal- 
lace, a Sixth Former and Durant’s intimate 
friend and room-mate; Wallace had played 
that position for the Corinthians. He had not 
shown himself to be especially strong, but he 


THE LEFT TACKLE 37 

had an advantage over Edward in age and 
experience. 

Blanchard said the next day, Well, Ned, 
it’s a try-out between you and Wallace.” 

That was good news to Edward ; so long 
as he could still make a fight for the place he 
was happy. 

On the other hand, when it became appar- 
ent to Wallace that he was not to have the 
vacancy without a contest and that he might 
not have it at all, he could not quite hide his 
disappointment. For two years he had been 
a substitute on the team ; and he had assumed 
that this autumn — his last chance — he would 
be subjected to no competition. 

But he accepted the unpleasant necessity 
more philosophically and with a better grace 
than did Durant, who had a praiseworthy in- 
terest in his success. Durant grumbled a good 
deal ; he said that Crashaw might be all right 
in a year or two, but that now he was too 
young and green. 

About ten days before the St. John’s game 
Durant went to Blanchard. 


38 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


I suppose it ’s none of my business, Guy,’^ 
he began, ^^but it seems to me we’d stand 
a better chance if we played together in the 
line-up from now on just as we ’ll play against 
St. John’s.” 

I have n’t been varying the line-up much,” 
Blanchard replied. Only at left tackle, where 
Wallace and Crashaw have been alternating.” 

That ’s just the place. If you pick your 
man now and keep him there right along, 
he ’ll settle dowu to the position and play it 
better in the game.” 

I picked the man to-day.” 
hope it’s Wallace.” 

I ’m sorry to disappoint you. It ’s 
Crashaw.” 

Durant’s face became glum. I don^t quite 
see why. Wallace is older, he’s had more 
experience; I’ve played against them both. 
This is Wallace’s last year, and I think he 
has a right to feel that he’s earned his 
chance.” 

Crashaw has football blood in him, and 
Wallace hasn’t. But Wallace will probably 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


39 


get a chance in the game, because Crashaw ’s 
young and may not have the endurance.” 

Durant walked away in angry silence. 
Great Scott ! ” exclaimed Blanchard later, 
after telling Jim Payne about it. Wouldn’t 
I lean over backwards to give the preference 
to Durant’s friend rather than to mine, if I 
could ! I know he feels sore about not being 
captain ; I think he might be generous enough 
to feel that I ’d be generous. Anybody with 
half an eye can tell that Crashaw has Wallace 
beaten.” 

The next day Wallace, dropped to the sec- 
ond eleven, seemed to be displaying unwonted 
aggressiveness. He was pitted against Durant; 
twice when Edward took the ball and tried to 
rush through the hole that Durant was ex- 
pected to open for him, Wallace tackled him 
for a loss. 

After the second failure Blanchard went up 
to Durant and said quietly, — 

Harry, are you playing this game quite 
straight ? You would n’t let St. John’s through 
you that way.” 


40 THE CEASHAW BEOTHEES 


Durant flushed and looked sullen. 

Well, put Wallace against Crashaw if you 
don’t like the way I ’m handling him/’ he said. 

can’t do that. Wallace needs practice in 
the position of left tackle, since he ’s going to 
substitute for that. He can’t shift now and 
play right tackle.” 

‘‘Just the same, if you put him opposite 
Crashaw you ’d soon find who was the better 
man.” 

Blanchard turned away without replying. 

Wallace himself, after the first disappoint- 
ment, took the captain’s decision in a better 
spirit than that shown by his too loyal friend. 
He said one day to Edward, jokingly, — 

“ If you ’ll kindly break an arm or a leg 
during the game, Crashaw, I’ll be much 
obliged.” 

Edward laughed. “ I hope they won’t want 
to pull me out for any other reason,” he 
answered. 

Charles Crashaw wrote a facetious letter 
to Edward, saying that he appreciated St. 
Timothy’s effort to propitiate St. John’s by 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


41 


putting a Crashaw on the team, but that it 
would n’t help them a bit. I suppose you and 
I will give each other several love-pats before 
the day is over,” he ended. 

Edward wrote in reply, I guess I ’m in 
the best position of any one on our team. I 
don’t see that I can feel so very badly, how- 
ever the game comes out. If we win, it will 
be great ; and if we lose, it will be my brother’s 
eleven that licked us.” 

At that Crashaw the elder felt a little 
ashamed of having been so consistently patron- 
izing, and said to himself, He ’s a good kid, 
Ned is. I hope he does well in the game.” 

Three days before the game, Wallace 
sprained his ankle so badly that there was no 
further hope of his playing at all. Edward was 
as sympathetic as any one with his misfor- 
tune ; at the same time he thought that now at 
least Durant would be more friendly. 

But if Wallace’s accident had been care- 
fully plotted for by Edward and Blanchard, 
Durant could hardly have had a more violent 
outburst. 


42 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


0 yes, Wallace is out o£ it now/’ he said. 

Mighty hard luck, some fellows are good 
enough to say. If Wallace had been playing 
on the first, where he belonged, he’d have 
been as well now as anybody — and somebody 
else would have been out of the game.” 

That was his first outburst ; no doubt in his 
cooler moments he was ashamed of it, for he 
did not talk in such a strain again. But in those 
last days he had little to say to Edward, either 
on the field or at the training-table. 

The game that year was to be played on St. 
Timothy’s ground. The night before, Edward 
went to bed in his alcove at half-past nine. 
The dormitory lights were put out at ten ; by 
half-past ten all the boys except Edward were 
asleep. 

He lay with his eyes closed, turning rest- 
lessly every few minutes to gain a position 
which would invite drowsiness, but all in vain. 
He heard Keating’s sleepy cough and inarticu- 
late mumble in the next alcove, he heard Law- 
rence turn in his bed, he heard the chapel 
clock strike eleven and twelve and one. 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


43 


By that time he was desperate; what sort 
of a game could he play if he did n’t sleep ? 
It wasn’t only that he would be tired out 
physically ; suppose he mixed or forgot the sig- 
nals ; there were so many of them. He began 
running through them in his mind; and while 
he was doing that the chapel clock struck two. 

Oh dear ! ” he sighed. He rolled over, 
stretched himself out on his face, — and when 
he awoke the light was streaming in over his 
alcove curtains. 

At the breakfast table Blanchard said to 
him, You ’re looking pretty fit. Have a good 
night?” 

^^Oh, fair.” 

Edward thought that so long as he looked 
well he would not give Blanchard anything to 
worry about. 

It was n’t easy to study that morning ; how- 
ever, in class the masters were all good-nat- 
ured and helped him when he stumbled. He 
felt that on the part of every one, masters and 
boys, there was to-day a wish to make things 
especially comfortable for him ; there was a 


44 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


special thoughtfulness. Keating and Lawrence 
clung at his side, petting him at every turn. 
Even Durant pleased him by coming up during 
the morning recess and saying, ^^Well, Cra- 
shaw, how goes it?’’ And Wallace, limping 
on crutches, said to him, Strong as a bull, 
I hope?” 

But after the early luncheon which the 
eleven had at the training-table and while 
they were walking down to the field, Ed- 
ward did not feel as strong as a bull. He 
was nervous and shaky, and afraid that 
Blanchard would notice it and become dis- 
trustful. 

Suddenly there was the sound of wheels be- 
hind, and then a shout ; and there, swinging 
down the long avenue under the bare elms, 
came the St. John’s barge, drawn by four 
horses. The St. Timothy’s boys stepped aside, 
— they were only a short distance from the 
athletic house, — and the barge swept by. 
Edward stood, waving his cap and searching 
with shining eyes. 

Ned ! Ned ! ” cried a voice ; and there was 


THE LEFT TACKLE 45 

his brother in the midst of them, waving at 
him. 

In another moment the barge had stopped 
at the steps of the athletic house, and the St. 
John’s fellows scrambled out and St. Timothy’s 
ran up to welcome them. Edward was the first 
and had his brother by the hand ; and when 
the next moment Blanchard came up, Charles, 
clinging to Edward, said, Hello, Blanchard ; 
I hear there ’s an awfully weak spot in your 
line.” 

Blanchard grinned. 

You ’ll make a mistake if you act on that 
idea,” he replied. 

There was a quarter of an hour before it 
would be time to dress, so the two Crashaw 
brothers went off by themselves ; they found a 
sunny corner on the south side of the athletic 
house, and sat there with their backs against 
the wall. 

One would hardly have taken them for 
brothers ; Edward, the larger, heavier of the 
two, was round-faced, with softly moulded 
features, whereas Charles was wiry and had a 


46 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


straight nose, a decisive mouth, a long chin ; 
only in their eyes were the boys alike, for in 
them was the same humorous, kindly look, the 
same quick intelligence. 

It was a warm day for November. 

“ Going to be hot playing,” said Charles, 
guess so,” said Edward. 

You ’re pretty successful here, are n’t 
you?” 

Thanks to you, I ’ve got a good start.” 

Thanks to me, you ungrateful pup ! 
You ’ve fixed me so that I don’t know where 
I’m at. Suppose a year or two from now 
you ’re captain of St. Timothy’s ; can I come 
up and root for St. John’s with any pleasure ? 
And I certainly won’t root for you. You ’ve 
spoiled about half my fun.” 

Oh, well.” Edward chuckled. Don’t fret 
yourself about that, Charley. Y ou know, I may 
never be captain.” 

You ’ve got to play this afternoon so that 
some day you will be. — And we ’ll lick you 
just the same.” 

We ’re pretty good,” Edward said. TeU 


THE LEFT TACKLE 


47 


me about this fellow Jackson that plays op- 
posite me, Charley. What ’s the best way for 
me to play him ? ” 

Charles smiled at the ingenuous question. 

W ould n’t you like to know ! He ’s a terror.” 

Just the same, I ’ll bet he ’s as scared of 
me as I am of him.” 

“ That ’s right ; talk big ; it will keep your 
courage up,” teased Charles. 

Then, perhaps because it made them both 
nervous, they turned from the subject of the 
game and talked of other things. 

Charles looked at his watch. ^^Time for my 
fellows to get dressed. Blanchard will probably 
be wanting you too, Ned.” 

As they ascended the steps of the athletic 
house, they saw far up the road the St. Tim- 
othy’s column advancing and heard it suddenly 
roll out a great cheer. 

Look, Ned, look ! ” Charles pointed ex- 
citedly. There come our fellows 1 ” 

A procession of blue-bedecked barges broke 
through the St. Timothy’s column and trun- 
dled down toward the field. 


CHAPTER III 


THE WEAK SPOT 


ACKSON was a long, lean, sinewy fellow 



^ who overtopped Edward by three inches. 
In the first line-up he crouched, swinging his 
big-boned, rangy arms, and eying Edward with 
a deliberate and concentrated look somehow 
more menacing than his swinging arms and 
defiant posture. He was evidently not one 
who would lose his head or waste his energy. 
Edward in that first moment felt a sudden 
fear and resolved that he must gain self-con- 
fidence by overpowering his man at the start, 
— getting the jump on him. 

In that he succeeded ; high-strung and well 
drilled in his position, he was more quickly 
awake to the game than his more phlegmatic 
opponent. From the very first he was putting 
every ounce of his strength into the play, and 
so long as he was holding his man, he did not 



EDWARD TACKLED HIS BROTHER 





THE WEAK SPOT 


49 


stop to consider how much strength Jackson 
might have in reserve. 

Early in the half Edward broke through 
and tackled his brother, who had caught a 
punt and dodged the St. Timothy’s end ; he 
hurled Charles to the ground with a fury 
which drew the applause of cheers and laugh- 
ter from St. Timothy’s. It was all laughter a 
moment later when Edward helped Charles to 
rise and gravely gave him a condoling pat on 
the back. 

The ball was on St. John’s twenty-yard line, 
and Charles signalled for a run round left end. 
On the play Edward thrust Jackson aside and 
tackled the runner for a loss. St. John’s had 
to kick, and Blanchard got the ball in the 
middle of the field. 

A few moments later he called for Edward 
to take it, and Edward made a five-yard rush, 
Durant opening up the way. 

Great work, Ned, great work ! ” Blanchard 
cried. Sheldon, who was playing left guard, 
just beside Edward, gave him a jubilant hand 
and hauled him to his feet and his place in 


60 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


the line-up. On the side-lines the St. Timothy’s 
spectators were not unmindful of what Ed- 
ward was doing; that ‘rush had brought the 
ball close to the boundary, and Edward heard 
eager cries, That’s the way, Crashaw! Put 
it all over big brother now.” 

Edward was getting winded; still he thought 
nothing of that. It was probably just the 
excitement of the game, and as he panted 
between plays, he glanced at Charles ; but 
Charles’s face was serene; he moved about 
distributing whispered words and encouraging 
pats among his men ; last of all he gave one 
to Jackson. 

Jackson was not panting yet, but his eyes 
were burning now with an awakened fire and 
his long arms swung with an impatient nerv- 
ousness. Edward, crouching opposite him, 
panting but exultant, was unaware of any 
change. 

On the next play Blanchard let Edward 
take the ball again; but this time the boy 
was so anxious to get away quickly that he 
lost his feet and went down without even be- 


THE WEAK SPOT 


51 


ing tackled. He got up mortified ; the advant- 
age which he had won the moment before 
was lost. 

Never mind, Ned,” said the captain, and 
gave the signal which meant that Edward 
should open up a hole for Jim Payne, the right 
half-back. 

With all his force Edward launched him- 
self at Jackson, but this time a moment too 
soon ; Jackson neatly evaded him and then 
plunged in and grabbing Payne round the 
waist began rushing him backwards ; the St. 
John’s eleven concentrated behind to help 
him, and Payne, shouting Down ! Down ! ” 
was being slowly borne back towards his own 
goal. 

The referee put a stop to that and called 
the ball down at the spot where Payne had 
been tackled. 

Edward took his place with a strange su- 
perstitious fear; had his luck turned? He had 
started in too strongly perhaps — yet now 
Jackson was compelling him to keep up to 
that pace. 


62 THE CKASHAW BROTHEKS 


For St. Timothy’s, Watts dropped back to 
kick ; Edward braced himself to prevent J ack- 
son from breaking through and blocking the 
punt. And again Edward was over-eager and 
charged too soon, — so that before he knew 
how it had happened, Jackson had flashed 
past him and was bearing down on the full- 
back, who sent the ball away just in time ; it 
sailed barely beyond the reach of Jackson’s 
upraised arms. 

It was a good, successful kick, and in the 
satisfaction and relief which it occasioned, 
there were not many who thought of Edward’s 
failure to perform his part ; but he was cha- 
grined enough by it. Steady, now; steady!” 
he murmured to himself, as if he were a fright- 
ened horse that was getting beyond control. 

For the rest of the half he fought it out 
with Jackson on even terms — just as the two 
elevens were fighting it out. He held his own, 
but with increasing difiiculty, and it seemed to 
him that Jackson was growing stronger and 
stronger all the time. At the end of the half, 
with the score nothing to nothing, he felt as 


THE WEAK SPOT 


53 


exhausted as he might naturally feel at the 
end of a hard game. And Jackson, it was 
evident, had not yet begun to tire. 

In the athletic house Edward doused his 
head with water and then lay on his back on 
the floor with his eyes closed. He wished 
that Blanchard would n’t find it necessary to 
talk ; he felt that what would do him most 
good would be to snatch five minutes’ sleep. 
Oh, if he had not lost those precious hours 
during the night ! But Blanchard came up 
and sat beside him, and assured him that he 
was playing splendidly, and that in the next 
half St. Timothy’s would score. 

Edward, without opening his eyes, smiled 
a weary assent. 

^^Now,” Blanchard said, addressing the 
eleven, I ’ll tell you what I want you to do, 
fellows. It ’s our kick-off this half, and we 
have the wind with us. We ’ve got to keep 
St. John’s from running the ball back; when 
they kick we must get the ball inside their 
forty-yard line. And then we ’re off for a 
touchdown. We can score in the first five 


64 THE CEASHAW BEOTHERS 


minutes, if every man plays for all that ’s in 
him. — Ned, I ’ll give you a chance to run 
with the ball ; Durant ’s playing a bully game, 
opening up holes, and you ought to get 
through for your distance.” 

I ’ll try,” said Edward. 

On the kick-off he was the first one down 
the field, and he tackled his brother, who 
caught the ball, before Charles had gone two 
yards. The St. Timothy’s cheer inspirited him ; 
he sprang up and went to his position with 
renewed confidence. Charles took instant re- 
venge and sent Dale, his fullback, charging 
through Edward for five yards. 

Hold them, fellows, hold them,” Blanch- 
ard urged on the next line-up. 

And hold them they did, and St. John’s 
kicked, and St. Timothy’s got the ball just 
inside St. John’s forty-yard line. 

^^What did I tell you, fellows?” cried 
Blanchard with elation. Now we ’ll do the 
rest of the trick.” 

He made a beautiful forward pass to Coch- 
rane, the right end, and Cochrane gained ten 


THE WEAK SPOT 


55 


yards. Then Payne plunged through the 
centre for five yards. 

Only twenty-five more to go, fellows ! ’’ 
cried Blanchard. Seven, fifty-three, six ! ” 
That was Edward’s signal, and he rushed 
round behind Blanchard, receiving the ball as 
he passed. Head down, with Blanchard push- 
ing him he plunged through the gap that 
Durant and Cochrane had opened up between 
them; a whitewashed line flew beneath his 
feet, and then he was thrown violently on his 
shoulder, and somehow as he fell the ball 
slipped away from him. 

Dazed and breathless, he rose at last, to 
hear the joyous shouting from the St. John’s 
followers. 

Durant was stamping about furiously and 
came up to him. ^^Oh^ Butterfingers!” cried 
Durant. How did you do it ? ” 

Edward turned away sadly without answer- 
ing. Charles Crashaw had heard the speech; 
he stood for a moment glaring at the boy 
who had reproached his brother. Then in the 
heat of his anger, he committed an error of 


56 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


judgment ; he drove the next attack against 
Durant, who had been playing the strongest 
game in the St. Timothy’s line. The attack 
collapsed without gaining. Then Charles di- 
rected a play at Edward ; Jackson opened up 
the hole and Dale rushed through for five 
yards. 

Stop them, Crashaw ; you ’ve got to stop 
them ! ” cried Durant passionately. 

Charles Crashaw heard that too, and his 
eyes glittered. 

Blanchard gave Edward a confiding pat on 
the shoulder. All right, old man; all right,” 
said Blanchard’s quiet voice. 

That generous confidence made Edward 
choke ; he resolved to justify his captain’s 
faith. The next time he made a good tackle ; 
and again St. John’s had to kick. The ball 
was St. Timothy’s in the middle of the field. 

They rushed it by a series of attacks to St. 
John’s thirty-yard line. Edward had been get- 
ting into every play with all the strength that 
he had; and Blanchard had been driving his 
team without intermission. 


THE WEAK SPOT 


57 


Once Edward had been given the ball and 
had made a five-yard gain; he had been 
thrown pretty hard. Now he felt that exhaus- 
tion was coming over him again ; he staggered 
and gasped, but he tried to keep back his 
gasps so that Jackson should not hear. On 
the thirty-yard line Blanchard called for Du- 
rant to take the ball and go through Jackson. 
In the play Edward was the fraction of a sec- 
ond slow ; J ackson charged him, thrust him 
aside, and hurled Durant to the ground for a loss. 

You We got to block your man, Crashaw !” 
Durant exclaimed wrathfully when he got to 
his feet. 

The elder Crashaw was standing right there, 
and his temper flared. ^^You must think no- 
body can ever tackle you 1 ” he sneered. 

Signal ! ” shouted Blanchard ; and Durant 
and Edward hurried to their places. 

That was the last signal that Blanchard 
gave. Sayre, the centre, snapped the ball back 
poorly, and as Blanchard was delayed getting 
his hands on it, Williams, the big St. John’s 
guard, burst through and fell on him. 


58 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


Williams got up all right, but Blanchard 
lay on the ground. The team gathered round 
him ; Durant knelt and lifted his head. 

Don’t,’’ said Blanchard, I ’m all right. 
Don’t bother.” 

His face was pale and he was gritting his 
teeth, but he sat up. Dr. Vincent, the school 
physician, had hurried out on the field. 

^^It ’s my left knee,” Blanchard said to him. 

Wrenched it — but I ’ll be able to go on in 
a moment.” 

The doctor turned down the boy’s stocking. 

No more football for you to-day,” he said. 

It ’s out of the question.” 

^^Wait; I’ll show you. Give me a hand.” 
They helped Blanchard to his feet and he took 
a hobbling step. He stopped then, with a pain- 
ful smile. 

I guess you ’re right. Doctor; it’s no use. 
Durant, will you be captain ? — Play hard, fel- 
lows ; you can lick them.” 

Durant and the doctor assisted him to the 
side-line, while St. John’s and St. Timothy’s 
alike applauded him. Carberry, his substitute, 


THE WEAK SPOT 


59 


ran out and began limbering up and mak- 
ing practice passes with the ball. Blanchard 
stretched himself on a blanket on the ground 
and then drew Durant’s head down close to his. 

You ’re captain now, and it’s all your 
game, Harry,” he said. There ’s just one 
thing ; I believe young Crashaw will play bet- 
ter if you don’t scold him.” 

I ’ll try to act like a captain,” Durant 
answered. 

The game went on; Carberry at quarter- 
back was eager and energetic, but his judg- 
ment was not always good and his skill was 
limited. On the very first play Durant had 
him change the signal ; then Jim Payne took 
the ball and fought his way through to St. 
John’s twenty-yard line. There, after three 
furious scrimmages, in all of which Edward 
was buried deep, St. Timothy’s were held and 
lost the ball. 

For St. John’s, Charles Crashaw made an 
end run of fifteen yards and then sent Dale 
through Edward for ten yards ; once more the 
ball was in neutral territory, and St. John’s 


60 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


on the side-lines were shouting in an ecstasy 
of relief. Edward stood after that last rush 
with his hands on his knees, getting his breath. 

^^All right, Crashaw.” It was Durant’s 
voice, strangely encouraging instead of sharp 
and critical. All right.” And Durant clapped 
him on the shoulder just as Blanchard had 
done. 

Charles Crashaw paused to survey his men 
and the enemy. There was Jackson, dishev- 
elled, dirty, panting, but in the full flush of 
his strength ; opposite him stood Edward, with 
his face white and drawn, betraying exhaustion 
and suffering. Charles looked along the line. 
His jocular word to Blanchard before the 
game had come true. He had found St. Tim- 
othy’s weak spot. 

There were only a few minutes left before 
time would be called. Charles began to drive 
every play against his brother. First it would 
be Carter, with Charles blocking off, who would 
dash through the hole that Jackson opened. 
Then it would be Dale, the fullback. Then it 
would be Rose, the left tackle. 


THE WEAK SPOT 


61 


But whoever it was, he always found the 
hole awaiting him ; Jackson always had Ed- 
ward out of the way, and Carberry, striving 
to stop the gap, never succeeded in at once 
pulling the runner down. 

I ’ll try to help you,” Sheldon breathed 
twice in Edward’s ear. ^^If you can’t get 
him, turn him in this way.” 

But it was sufficiently apparent that with 
Williams opposite him Sheldon already had 
his hands more than full. Steadily, ruthlessly 
St. John’s proceeded up the field, hammering 
the necessary gains each time through the 
weak spot. 

The St. John’s cheering grew more intense, 
the St. Timothy’s cheering more desperate. 
After every play Durant ran up to Edward, 
clapped him encouragingly on the back, cried 
cheerfully, You can hold them, Ned !” He 
had never called Edward anything but Crashaw 
before. 

Edward turned away dumbly. He was very 
tired — too tired to speak. He was grateful to 
Durant, but he did not much care now what 


62 THE CKASHAW BEOTHERS 


was said to him. If they would only give him 
a rest for one play ; perhaps then he could 
stop the next one. Once his eyes met his 
brother’s, and though he was unconscious of 
it there was in them a beseeching look. 

Charles hesitated a moment that time before 
giving the signal ; then he cried it out sharply 
and sent Rose crashing through Edward for 
five yards. 

‘‘ Lie still and take time out after the play, 
Ned.” Durant whispered this in his ear. ^^Save 
your strength all you can.” 

But the few seconds allowed for that did 
not seem to be of any value. 

Ten consecutive rushes through Edward had 
brought the ball to St. Timothy’s ten-yard 
line. 

Hold them, fellows ; you ’ve got to hold 
them 1 ” cried Durant. 

Hold them, St. Timothy’s ; hold them, St. 
Timothy’s ! ” shouted the boys on the nearer 
side-line. Touchdown ! Touchdown ! Touch- 
down ! ” clamored incessantly the crowd on the 
farther side-line. 


THE WEAK SPOT 


63 


Edward crouched for the play. He knew it 
would come at him ; he felt a bitter resent- 
ment against Charles for battering him in this 
way, driving every play at him, humiliating 
him so. Why could n’t he go at some one else 
for a change? It was n’t fair, it — 

He charged with all his might, and with 
head down tackled some one who was plung- 
ing past Jackson. They fell hard, and Ed- 
ward hugged his man with his last desperate 
strength ; this time at least he had done his 
duty, this time they had made no gain. 

Then as the others got up, the boy whom 
he was clasping said in a mufded voice, half- 
appealing, half -humorous, It ’s only me, 
Ned.” And Edward saw that it was his brother 
Charles whom he had tackled, and that Charles 
did not have the ball. Rose had carried it 
through to the five-yard line, and all St. 
John’s were leaping and waving blue flags and 
shouting. 

Charles rose and looked at his brother with 
a smile more wistful than triumphant. He 
glanced at the other St. Timothy’s players; 


64 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


they were all blown and anxious-eyed, but 
none of them looked as Edward did, none had 
that white circle round the mouth, none seemed 
so exhausted and distressed. 

Now then, fellows, get across this time,’’ 
Charles cried in hi& determined voice. ^^Sixty- 
three, seven ! ” 

Then they went through Edward for the 
touchdown. 

Three minutes after. Dale had kicked the 
goal, making the score six to nothing for St. 
John’s ; the game was over. 

Charles did not have a chance then to speak 
to Edward. The St. John’s boys rushed upon 
the field ; they massed round their captain and 
exalted him on their shoulders, and then ran 
with him to the athletic house. He was far less 
happy than any of those who bore him. 

In the shower-room he found himself stand- 
ing next to Durant. 

Why did n’t you put a substitute in for my 
brother towards the end ? ” he asked sharply. 

The only substitute there was sprained his 
ankle three days ago,” Durant replied. We 


THE WEAK SPOT 


65 


might have put young Stokes in, but that 
would n’t have done any good. You ’d have 
gone through him more easily than through 
your brother.” 

Ned must have been overtrained.” 

should n’t wonder. He was plucky, 
though. When he gets his growth and his en- 
durance he ’ll be all right. I guess he blames 
himself more than anybody else does.” 

Other players entered the bath-room, but 
Edward was not among them. Charles went 
into the dressing-room and rubbed himself 
down; at the farther end of the room he saw 
Edward half undressed, sitting on a bench 
with his chin in his hands. A fellow on 
crutches stood by him. 

You cheer up, Crashaw,” this person was 
saying. tell you, that Jackson fellow was 
fierce — I don’t believe anybody could have 
stood up under the battering they gave you. 
I think you did mighty well to hold him as 
long as you did. Everybody thinks so too. 
You ’re young yet ; in a year or two you ’ll 
give St. John’s what for.” 


66 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

I can’t help feeling that if you ’d been in 
there instead of me, Wallace — ” 

^^Now cut that right out,” said Wallace, 
and he laid his hand on the boy’s bare shoulder. 

Charles moved up near them. The older- 
brother habit of authority asserted itself. 

Ned,” he said, you ’d better go in and 
take your bath ; you ’ll catch cold.” 

Edward looked up, saw that it was Charles, 
and meekly obeyed. 

He ’s taking it pretty hard,” said the lame 
fellow. 

It ’s good of you to try to make it easy,” 
said Charles. 

^^Oh, well.” Wallace lingered as if want- 
ing to add something; then he turned on his 
crutches and swung out of the door. 

Charles Crashaw waited for his brother. 
When Edward was dressed, Charles took him 
by the arm and said, We ’ll go for a little 
walk up the road — till the barge comes along 
and takes me in.” 

Outside, they came upon Blanchard, wrap- 
ped in a blanket and seated in a carriage. 


THE WEAK SPOT 


67 


Congratulate you, Crashaw,” he said, put- 
ting out his hand to Charles. 

Edward stood by with downcast eyes. 

It ’s the hardest luck you got hurt ; I ’m 
awfully sorry,” said Charles. 

^‘It was a chump thing for me to do.” 
Blanchard glanced kindly at the younger 
brother. Just my own clumsiness. When I 
ought to have stayed and backed Ned up in 
the defence — instead of leaving him to go it 
alone.” 

Edward raised his eyes ; there were tears in 
them. 

can’t tell you how I feel, Guy,” he said; 
his lips quivered, and he turned quickly away. 

Charles pressed Blanchard’s hand. Thank 
you, ever so much,” he said. Then he hur- 
ried after his brother. 

They walked together for a while in silence. 

^^Kid,” said Charles, when they had turned 
away from the field into the avenue of elms, 
you know, I did n’t enjoy winning this game 
very much.” 

Why not ? ” 


68 THE CKASHAW BROTHEKS 


^^Ah, you know why, Ned!” He put his 
arm round his brother’s waist. ^^It almost 
made me cry — to keep pounding you when 
you were all played out. You don’t know how 
I wanted to try it somewhere else — especially 
when it came to striking for the touchdown. 
Oh, I ’d have given anything to make it 
through Durant instead of you ! But I did n’t 
dare to take the chance, Ned. I knew that 
everywhere else your line was strong — and it 
was up to me to win that game for St. John’s. 
I ’m sorry.” 

It ’s all right, Charley. I suppose I ’m 
selfish to feel the least bit sore about it. Your 
last year at St. John’s and being captain — of 
course you — I ought almost to be glad you 
won. But I ’m sorry for Blanchard 1 If only 
I had n’t lost it — 1 ” 

Nobody blames you. Jackson really is a 
wonder. You held him mighty well, until your 
strength gave out.” 

^^If I only thought so! ” 

Everybody else thinks so. The way those 
St. Timothy’s fellows talk about you — it 


THE WEAK SPOT 69 

makes me feel they ’re just as good as St. 
John’s.” 

They ’re the best ever — if that’s what 
you mean.” 

^^Kid/’ said Charles, drawing him close, 
^Ht does me good to see you smile again.” 

Behind them came the St. John’s barge at 
a gallop. It slowed up, and the boys in it 
called to Charles to climb aboard. 

Good-by, Ned,” he said, and gave a linger- 
ing squeeze to his brother’s hand. 

Jackson reached a hand down from the 
barge. 

Crashaw,” he said. Just to show there ’s 
no hard feeling.” 

Edward looked up at him ; he was not at all 
savage in appearance now ; he was laughing 
and his eyes were kind. 

None at all,” said Edward, and he grasped 
Jackson’s hand. 

Then the barge rolled away. Edward took 
.off his cap and waved a farewell to his brother. 

When he turned, the first golden streaks of 
the sunset were shining beyond the chapel 


70 THE CKASHAW BROTHEKS 

tower. He looked toward them with blurred 
eyes. There was a crowning radiance to his 
afternoon ; through his failure and defeat he 
had come to know Wallace and Durant and 
Sheldon and Blanchard — yes, even his own 
brother — all that was best in them, and to 
care for them all as perhaps he might never 
otherwise have cared. 

If I could ever be big enough to treat some 
other poor kid the way they Ve treated me 1’^ 
he thought. 


CHAPTER IV 


IN VACATION 

I T was well enough to have the knowledge 
that the fellows for whom one most cared 
did not despise one for one’s weakness; but 
for a long time soreness lingered in Edward’s 
heart. He felt that he had been treated more 
generously than he deserved. 

was nothing but a quitter,” he thought 
to himself moodily, time and again. He would 
stop to hold debates with himself about it while 
he was dressing, while he was taking a bath ; 
the sight of his own muscles seemed particularly 
to exasperate him. You played out, you big 
beef ! ” Thus at such moments he would 
address himself. ^^You laydown; that’s all 
there was to it.” 

Jackson became a mere ordinary boy in re- 
trospect, no such giant of strength and endur- 
ance after all. And when Edward’s indulgent 
side pleaded the memory of his sleepless night 


72 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


as an excuse, the prosecutor who had his inner 
ear scathingly replied, Yes, and why could n’t 
you sleep ? It was because you were scared 
before the game. You lay down before ever 
it began. You’re a quitter; that’s all you 
are. Excusing yourself because you were 
tired ! ” 

With this morbid idea implanted in his 
mind, Edward was for some days quite morose. 
In his letter about the game to his mother he 
did not go into details ; he said that he him- 
self played very badly and that was why St. 
Timothy’s lost, but that Charles had played 
very well, and it was rather a pity that she 
and his father could n’t have been there to see 
Charles play ; they would n’t have got much 
satisfaction out of watching him. 

The tone of the letter was so disconsolate 
that his mother answered it at once ; she said 
Charles’s account did not coincide with his at 
all, for Charles had written that Edward had 
done splendidly, except that he had got rather 
tired towards the end — which was only natural 
in one so young ; Mrs. Crashaw ended her 


IN VACATION 


73 


letter by advising her son that there were 
other things in the world besides football 
games, and it was bad to take one’s defeats, 
or victories either, for that matter, so in- 
tensely. 

Edward felt that this was good advice, but 
that after all she did n’t and could n’t under- 
stand ; it was n’t a matter of the defeat or 
the victory, it was a matter of his own char- 
acter. He was a quitter,” and he felt that 
Charles in his heart of hearts, and in spite of 
the brotherly sympathy and affection which 
had done so much to tide him over the first 
bad hour, knew it and was ashamed. He felt 
that Charles must be in a measure glad now 
that he had not come to St. John’s. Those 
were the thoughts that burnt deepest. There 
had never been anything of the quitter in 
Charles. 

Edward cheered up after a time, of course, 
but the experience had left its scar. There 
was no other outdoor activity now into which 
he could plunge and so shake off the per- 
sistent self-reproach ; there was no way of 


74 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

vindicating his spirit. Here he was, — a new 
boy who had had a phenomenal success at the 
start, who had been elected president of his 
form and taken up by the best of the older 
fellows — and now he had collapsed like a 
pricked bubble ! 

Snow and ice came soon, and then hockey 
was the sport that invited the attention of the 
boys. But Edward was a duffer ’’ at hockey 
— to the surprise and chagrin of those who 
had seen his brother play the year before on 
the St. John’s team. 

“ Funny you don’t play better,” said Law- 
rence to him one day. Your brother ’s a 
perfect whirlwind on skates.” 

I know,” said Edward. I never seemed 
to get the knack.” 

Because they liked him so much, and were 
always glad to have him round, his friends 
would never leave him out when they were 
choosing up sides ; usually they put him in to 
guard the goal, an unexciting position which 
he filled acceptably enough. 

Now and then one of the others, winded by 


IN VACATION 


75 


the more active play, would relieve him, and 
he would take his place among the forwards, 
and sometimes get his stick on the rubber 
disk and run with it clumsily a little way, but 
he never kept it long. It seemed as if any- 
body could get it away from him — even a 
midget like young Vance. Even Keating, in 
spite of his toeing in and his tendency to 
walk on his ankle-bones, skated better than 
Edward. 

It was endlessly humiliating — and yet it 
was all rather good fun ; and Edward found 
himself just as eager each day for that scrub 
game as he had ever been for the football or 
baseball games in which he more noticeably 
shone. 

Keeping goal, he had plenty of opportunity 
to watch the crack hockey-players, who were 
having their practice near by ; Bell and Payne 
and Durant and Sheldon were the best of 
them. Blanchard was temporarily out of the 
game on account of his injured knee, but 
hoped to be all right after the Christmas 
vacation, and able to take part in the Pythian- 


76 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Corinthian matches and .the game with St. 
John’s. 

He ’s the best scorer we have/’ Lawrence 
said to Edward. “ And I guess your brother 
is the best for St. John’s. I saw the game 
last year, and the way those two played was 
enough to scare you ; they ’re terribly aggress- 
ive. I thought one of ’em would be knocked 
out sure.” 

Charles handles himself pretty well,” Ed- 
ward replied. He ’s never yet been knocked 
out in football or anything.” 

Nevertheless when, a week later, Edward 
went home for the Christmas vacation, he 
found his brother, who had preceded him by 
a day, nursing a badly discolored eye and a 
sprained thumb. 

Gee, Charley, but you ’re a mess ! ” were 
Edward’s first words. What have you been 
doing to yourself?” 

Oh, just got smashed up a little in the 
last hockey practice. I don’t suppose I can 
go to any parties looking like this.” Charles 
examined himself ruefully in the glass. Are 


IN VACATION 


7T 


they going to put you on the St. Timothy’s 
hockey team, Ned — so that I can go for you 
again ? ” 

You need n’t have asked that,” said Ed- 
ward. 

Something in his voice caused Charles to 
turn from the mirror where he had been ex- 
amining his face. He saw the injured look in 
Edward’s eyes, the flush on his cheeks, and 
he said with quick compunction, — 

I did n’t think ; I ought not to have 
jollied you there. But honestly, I wondered if 
you were getting on to hockey any better 
than you used to.” 

No. I ’m as much a chump as ever. I go 
out and play with little kids, and they stick 
me in to keep goal, and I fall all over my- 
self when anybody comes at me with the 
puck. I ’ll be glad when baseball begins 
again; I think that’s one thing anyway I 
can do.” 

You’d better take up rowing instead of 
baseball ; you ’re just the build for it, and it ’s 
a great deal more fun.” 


78 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


^^How do you know?’’ Edward laughed. 
^^You never played ball enough to find 
out.” 

^^Well, you try rowing; you’ll see. I’ve 
got a new toy I want to show you ; I’ll let you 
play with it maybe if you ’re good. Come up 
to my room and see it.” 

Charles’s room had always had a fascination 
for the younger brother. It was at least twice 
as large as Edward’s own, and as Charles had 
grown and waxed great in athletic prowess and 
ambition he had equipped it more and more as 
a gymnasium. 

Only within the last year or two had he 
admitted Edward into it on equal terms ; before 
that, it had been chiefly as an admiring spec- 
tator that Edward had come and had been 
received ; and not until Charles had finished 
showing off with his Indian clubs and his 
punching-bag and his horizontal bar, — on 
wliich he believed he could do the giant swing 
if the ceiling were high enough to let him, 
— not until he had given a display of his 
superior attainments would he condescend to 


IN VACATION 


79 


let Edward try the apparatus and to instruct 
him. 

But the time had come at last when Edward 
was privileged to walk in and make use of the 
place just as if it were his own gymnasium; 
when Charles became indeed shy of putting 
on the boxing-gloves and standing up to him ; 
and when, if Charles taunted Edward with 
his inferiority on the horizontal bar, Edward 
could reply by putting the fifty-pound dumb- 
bell straight up from his shoulder and say- 
iug,— 

Come on ; let ’s see you do this.” 

The room looked the same as when Edward 
had last seen it, with the punching-bag sus- 
pended in the middle, the foils and boxing- 
gloves hung on the walls, the chest-weights by 
the head of the bed, and the trophies, the 
medals and cups on the mantel-piece ; it was 
all the same except for one quite noticeable 
addition. 

That was a rowing-machine, of the kind 
that Edward had seen in the gymnasium at 
St. Timothy’s. There was the little sliding seat 


80 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


that ran in steel grooves, there was the foot- 
rest with the toe-straps — all constructed just 
as they would be in a racing shell ; there was 
an oar which fitted into the socket of a swivel, 
and pressed, as one pulled, against an air- 
cushion. 

I wrote to father and asked him to have it 
set up for me,’’ Charles explained. You see. 
I’ll be playing hockey a good deal next term 
and won’t get as much rowing practice in the 
gym as some of the other fellows. But this 
will help me to keep even with them ; I can 
use it in the Easter vacation, too. I ’ll coach 
you if you want me to, Ned.” 

They don’t let anybody use these things in 
our gymnasium except the crew men,” said 
Edward. ^^And they haven’t begun practis- 
ing yet — so I ’ve never seen the thing work. 
I always wanted to try one.” 

He sat down on the sliding seat, and pick- 
ing up the oar began shooting hack and forth. 

Oh shucks, you don’t know the first thing 
about it. Why, you begin by bending your 
hack like a bow one way and end up by bend- 


IN VACATION 81 

ing it like a bow in the other ! I ’ll have to 
show you.” 

Of course I can’t row in proper form with 
all my clothes on/’ said Edward. I ’ll bet I 
could soon learn. I don’t believe it ’s in it with 
baseball, so far as skill goes.” 

‘•Ho, is n’t it ! You have to be born to do it 
— or else you can never really learn.” 

“ Are you a born oarsman ? ” 

“Well, more or less.” Charles disliked hav- 
ing to make this personal application of the 
principle. “ I ’ll tell you, Ned, the real reason 
why I wanted this thing. It looks as if they ’d 
put me in to stroke the crew this year ; there ’s 
nobody else who ’s right for the place in weight 
and so on. It ’s important that a stroke should 
have a wonderful sense of time — so that he 
should know instinctively when he ’s rowing 
thirty-two strokes to the minute and when he ’s 
rowing thirty-four, and so that he should be 
able to keep the pace even and not be hitting 
it up and then dropping it again. Now I don’t 
know how good I may be at that; and I 
thought if I could sit here and row every day. 


82 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


with a clock in front of me, and count the 
strokes and watch the second hand, I’d get 
the sense of time after a while. Don’t you 
think there’s something in that?” 

You ’re a great fellow for using your head 
and thinking things out, are n’t you, Charley?” 
Edward gave his brother a look of admiration. 
‘‘ I should never have thought of doing a thing 
like that — being so thorough. No wonder 
they made you captain at St. John’s! ” 

^^Oh, you learn to use your head as you 
grow older,” Charles said graciously. ^^And 
I ’ll tell you what I ’ll do this vacation ; I ’ll 
teach you the St. John’s stroke. It’s the same 
as St. Timothy’s, so it won’t be giving away 
any secrets. And maybe some day you ’ll de- 
velop into an oarsman.” 

Edward felt grateful, and Charles felt that 
he had made amends for the jeer which had 
touched his brother in a sensitive spot. Each 
day he put Edward to work on the rowing- 
machine, and before the vacation was over 
he had quite fired him with zeal for this new 
sport. 


IN VACATION 


83 


^^I really think you have the makings of a 
good oar,” Charles said one day toward the 
end. When you go back to St. Timothy’s, 
you start right in and train with the crew. I 
believe you can make it.” 

‘‘ If I make the crew I can’t play baseball,” 
objected Edward. 

‘‘ If you can make the crew I don’t see why 
you should want to play baseball,” replied 
Charles. 

Because it ’s so much more fun.” 

^^You can’t tell how much fun rowing is 
from simply practising on a machine. It’s not 
a fair test. Besides, Ned, think what sport it 
would be for us to buck up against each other 
in a race. You ’d have your chance maybe to 
get your revenge.” 

That would be great, would n’t it ! ” Ed- 
ward rose from the sliding seat and took his 
brother gently by the neck. I ’d like to help 
lick you once before you leave that bum 
school.” 

Sometimes Mrs. Crashaw climbed the stairs 
to see what the boys were about ; she could not 


84 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


understand the fascination of the rowing- 
machine, and after watching Edward working 
on it a while and hearing Charles’s comments, 
such as, “ Don’t rush your slide ! Don’t swing 
crooked ! Don’t hang at the full reach ! ” she 
would be apt to say, ‘^Dear me, but you ’re two 
ridiculous boys ! ” 

Yet they liked to have her around to say 
that, and they were delighted one day when 
she asked to be allowed to row on the machine 
herself; they whooped with joy at her efforts 
to pull the oar and slide at the same time. 

Another day their father came up, and he 
too expressed a desire to show what sort of 
an oarsman he was ; he took off his coat and 
shoved himself back and forth, and pulled so 
hard that the perspiration came on his fore- 
head. 

guess you might have been something 
of an athlete if only you ’d gone to boarding- 
school when you were young,” was Charles’s 
condescending comment. 

You get some power into your stroke, but 
you have n’t any form,” added Edward. 


IN VACATION 


85 


A race between you and mother might be 
quite exciting/’ said Charles. 

Young man,” rejoined Mr. Crashaw with 
dignity, ‘‘ I am accustomed to rowing in real 
water in a real boat, — man’s size, too, — a 
rowboat or a dory, and if ever you want to take 
me on in a contest of that sort — ” 

^^We got a rise out of him all right,” 
Charles murmured quite audibly to Edward. 

Humph ! ” said Mr. Crashaw. Humph ! ” 
And he withheld his amused smile until he 
was safely on the stairs. 

It pleased Charles at the end of his vaca- 
tion to have his mother say when she was bid- 
ding him good-bye : — 

“ Edward has told me what a good brother 
you’ve been to him during these holidays, 
dear. He thinks you were fine to give up so 
much time to his rowing. Of course I don’t 
understand such things; but when Edward 
admires you so and is so grateful, it makes me 
proud of both my boys. You used to be rather 
domineering and dictatorial with Edward; 
you ’re ever so much nicer with him now.” 


86 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Charles was touched by that, but he did n’t 
care to show it. Oh, don’t you and Edward 
fool yourselves,” he said airily. “I’ve been 
teaching him to row just the way you ’d fatten 
a pig for killing.” 

His mother laughed and kissed him. 


CHAPTER V 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 

A WEEK after the opening of the mid- 
winter term at St. Timothy’s, Edward 
began training with the candidates for the 
Pythian crew. The number of them varied 
with the weather; if that was good and the 
skating was fine, there would be only a dozen 
or fifteen boys at work in the gymnasium ; 
whereas on stormy afternoons there might be 
a hundred, of whom at least half considered 
themselves crew candidates. 

Edward was one of the most constant, and 
was rewarded after a while for his constancy, 
for on a particularly lean day Tom Sheldon, 
the captain, said to him, — 

^^I’ve got to play hockey this afternoon, 
and most of the fellows will be doing that too ; 
will you run the squad, Crashaw ? ” 

Running the squad meant leading them in 
the pulling of chest-weights, stroking and 


88 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


coaching them on the rowing-machines, and 
afterwards taking them for a mile trot down 
the road. It was quite like being captain, and 
though Edward felt as he led his meagre band 
that perhaps not one of them would ever make 
the crew, he enjoyed being given a position of 
such responsibility. 

As for Sheldon, with all his attractive quali- 
ties, he had not much feeling of responsibility. 
He was a most easy-going, mentally indolent 
boy, who was nominally a Sixth Former but 
who was really repeating about half his studies 
with the Fifth ; he had been elected captain 
of the Pythian crew and also of the School 
crew by virtue of being the best oar in St. 
Timothy’s and not because he had ever demon- 
strated any notable capacity for leadership. 

Of the four members of the crew of the 
year before who had returned to the School, 
Cochrane and Quimby were Fifth Formers 
and would naturally have been passed over 
in the election of a captain; but Edward 
could not help thinking it strange that Shel- 
don had been preferred to Durant, who 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 89 

was obviously a person of greater driving 
power. 

Blanchard offered an explanation when 
Edward asked him about it. 

Sheldon was the best oar in the boat and 
pulled harder than anybody else in the race, 
so I guess the fellows thought he deserved 
the captaincy,” said Blanchard. Besides, 
he’s more generally popular than Harry Du- 
rant; I guess Harry’s soreness over the foot- 
ball election hurt him when it came to elect- 
ing a crew captain.” 

If it had not been for Mr. Burns, the 
gymnasium instructor, who gave them some 
patient coaching, the Pythian crew candidates 
would have been rather neglected. On the 
crowded days Sheldon seemed both bewil- 
dered and indifferent; he would pick out six 
or eight of the biggest fellows and say. 
Come on ; fall in ; ” and with them he would 
do chest-weights and row on the machines, 
leaving all the others to their own devices. 

It was quite a different method that Cole, 
the captain of the Corinthians, pursued. Cole 


90 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


had no great strength or skill as an oarsman, 
but he was most painstaking ; and when he 
was not himself actively pulling weights or 
rowing, he was standing by, watching and 
criticizing and trying to teach the others — 
even the most unpromising. But when Shel- 
don had had enough of the weights and the 
rowing-machines, he would pick out some one 
— usually Edward — and say, ^^You run the 
rest of the squad to-day.’’ 

Then he would go upstairs, where were the 
flying rings and horizontal bars and all the 
rest of the gymnasium apparatus ; and there 
he would disport himself, wrestling with some 
other big fellow on a mattress, or sailing up 
and down the room on the rings, or shinning 
up the rope to the ceiling, or skinning the 
cat” on the horizontal bar. 

He was the hero in the gymnasium of all 
the little kids, and as he moved about per- 
forming his various stunts he was always at- 
tended by a group of small persons whose 
bare arms and legs showed goose-flesh, but 
who preferred to shiver and look on at such 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 91 


wonderful feats rather than engage in the 
dull inferior exercise within their powers. 

Being so simple-minded and good-natured, 
Sheldon enjoyed the homage of the children ; 
he would perform for them unceasingly. 

Late one afternoon, when Edward had 
dressed and was about to leave the building, 
he paused in the doorway; at one side stood 
Mr. Barclay and Mr. Elwood; they did not 
notice Edward, for they were absorbed in 
watching Sheldon — as was nearly every one 
on the floor of the gymnasium. 

At the farther end of the room two ladders, 
inclined toward each other, rose almost to the 
ceiling and were connected at the top by a 
horizontal ladder. Sheldon was going up the 
inside of one of the slanting ladders — not 
going up hand over hand, but jerking himself 
up with both hands simultaneously, jumping 
as it were in air from rung to rung. He was 
doing it very fast; the loud slap,' slap of his 
hands, as they caught and then let go, re- 
sounded explosively in the silent room. 

He reached a height from which to fall 


92 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

would be serious. Edward looked on with 
bated breath and wished that Sheldon would 
shift to the safer method, hand over hand; 
that in itself for such a distance was hard 
enough. 

But Sheldon did not change ; he went 
springing on indefatigably right up to the 
top, and when he had reached it the spectat- 
ors broke out into clapping. He paused there 
only long enough to turn so that he faced 
the other inclined ladder; then he leaped 
towards it, rung by rung, and came down it 
rapidly in the same fashion. When he dropped 
to the floor, he turned a handspring on a mat- 
tress, came up, and blew a kiss to the admir- 
ing and applauding youngsters. 

Edward heard Mr. Barclay say to Mr. El- 
wood, ^^He’s a wonderful athlete; pity he 
has n’t any brains.” 

Perhaps that was true, thought Edward — 
yet he wished he were able to do that ! And 
having witnessed such a performance, he was 
considerably more sympathetic with Sheldon’s 
casual treatment of the crew candidates. To 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 93 


one who could do such brilliant things, the 
work on the rowing-machines and chest- 
weights must seem pretty dull. Besides, Ed- 
ward thought that probably after the hockey 
season was over Sheldon would take his duties 
as captain more seriously. 

There would no doubt be a general reor- 
ganization then; for there were some good 
oarsmen among the hockey players who 
would then make their first appearance. And 
Edward found it especially easy to make ex- 
cuses for Sheldon — as did almost every one 
who knew him. 

Meanwhile, Edward trained persistently, en- 
joying his intervals of authority and at other 
times performing the exercises with faithful- 
ness if not always with zest. It helped a good 
deal when Mr. Burns said just what Charles 
had said earlier: You have the makings of 
a good oar in you, Crashaw.’^ 

Mr. Burns spoke even more enthusiastically 
than that to Sheldon ; and that was one rea- 
son why Sheldon picked Edward out for leader 
of the squad. 


94 THE CEASHAW BEOTHEES 


Jim Payne, the captain of the baseball nine, 
became apprehensive. He said to Edward one 
day,— 

^^It’s all right for you to train with the 
crew these winter months and get strong — 
but don’t forget ; you ’re to play baseball in 
the spring.” 

Oh,” Edward laughed, spring is a long 
way off.” 

I know it, but we have to look ahead,” 
said Payne. I ’m counting on you.” 

Edward evaded an answer. He could not 
help knowing now that in all probability he 
could make the first Pythian crew and that 
he might even win a seat in the School boat. 
If he could do that ! He was n’t yet convinced 
that rowing was more fun than baseball, — 
though perhaps when one actually got out on 
the water it might prove so, — but whether it 
was or not, if the chance to row against his 
brother was offered him he meant to take it. 

He wrote often to Charles of the progress 
that he was making, and Charles answered 
with messages of encouragement. As for him- 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CEEW 95 


self, he said that he had not had much time to 
give to rowing since his return to St. John’s ; 
he had been getting ready for the hockey 
game, in which, he said, they expected to push 
St. Timothy’s all round the rink. 

Whether that was a well-founded vaunt or 
not, Edward had little opportunity of judg- 
ing. He sometimes wished he could get into 
one of the scrub hockey games again with 
Keating and Lawrence and Vance and the 
others ; they were talking about them all the 
time at the table, and urging Edward to drop 
his rowing once in a while and tend goal for 
them. 

You have such fine big feet for it,” Law- 
rence said. There’s nobody else with such 
big feet.” 

Besides,” said Keating, it is n’t good for 
you to stay shut up in the stuffy gymnasium 
when you could be out in the open air.” 

I take a run outdoors every day,” Edward 
replied. 

Indeed when he was in charge of the squad, 
he made those runs so long and vigorous that 


96 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


some of the boys protested. He took them 
bare-legged across fields when the snow was 
ankle-deep; he spurred them up icy slopes; 
on thawy days he splashed them along muddy 
roads until they were all a sorry-looking sight. 

They complained that they were n’t out for 
cross-country runs, that he was giving them 
chilblains, and that they did n’t see what this 
sort of treatment had to do with rowing any- 
way. 

Toughens you up,” said Edward, with a 
cheerful grin. Come on ; you ’re getting 
husky.” 

He was having a pretty good time out of 
it ; yet there were moments when he could not 
help envying other boys. When in the late 
afternoon, on the run home to the gymnasium, 
he passed the pond where the hockey players 
were flying about on the ice, with the ringing 
rush of the skates and the clashing scrimmage 
of the sticks, what he was doing seemed stupid 
and plodding by comparison. 

He had an eye for the picturesqueness and 
the grace of the skaters ; he liked to see a line 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 97 


of them sweep down the ice with that fine vig- 
orous singing of their skates, and then sharply 
wheel on a flank movement as some daring 
and deft opponent twitched aside the puck they 
were pursuing. It was all so brisk and spirited 
and changing, that it made the steady pull on 
the chest-weights and rowing-machines and the 
jog-trot on the empty roads seem monotonous. 

The sun setting beyond the pines which 
fringed the shore burnished the ice with warm 
bronze and golden tints; on two afternoons 
Edward thought he had never seen anything 
more gorgeous than that glow with all those 
swift and agile figures flashing about in it, 
sparkling with their own bright colors, their 
red jerseys and white sweaters and caps of 
different hues. He was sure then that to play 
hockey as the School team played it, as Charles 
played it, must give one the greatest joy, the 
most triumphant feeling in life ; he was more 
than ever sure that it must be wonderful to 
be Charles ! 

On the morning of Washington’s Birthday, 
Edward was tobogganing with Lawrence and 


98 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Keating and a number of other Fourth Form- 
ers on Roup’s Hill, which was half a mile from 
the School, on the road to town. 

It was a clear, cold morning ; there was a 
hard crust on the snow all the way down the 
long slope to the alder-fringed creek; there 
were gleaming thank-you-ma’ams over which 
the toboggans leaped, and frozen pools over 
which they skimmed ; the holiday spirit was 
in all the boys ; they shouted as they flew 
down the hill, and from the bottom they raced 
eagerly up again. Off in the distance they 
could see the pond where other fellows were 
skating, and beyond that the rink, empty of 
skaters, shining with its fresh ice and waiting 
for the contest of the afternoon. 

Charles had written to Edward that the St. 
John’s hockey team were coming over by the 
nine o’clock train to have luncheon with the 
St. Timothy’s team before the game ; so, after 
half-past eleven, when the nine o’clock train 
was due to arrive, Edward abandoned his to- 
boggan and sat on the stone wall, watching 
alternately the coasters and the road. 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 99 


Presently his eyes fell on two open sleighs 
coming rapidly, one close behind the other. 

I T1 bet these are the fellows,” Edward 
called out ; and a group gathered by the wall 
to see. 

The first sleigh drew near and passed ; the 
four boys in it were strangers who yet looked 
as if they might be St. John’s fellows, and who 
turned their eyes on the roadside group with 
a questioning smile. Then one of them waved 
his hand, and at that Edward and the others 
pulled off their caps and waved a welcome. 

By that time the second sleigh was almost 
abreast of them ; there were only three boys 
in that, and one of them was Charles. Edward 
made a rush for it, scrambled in while it flew 
by, and the next moment, in the seat beside 
his brother, was being introduced to Isham, 
who was captain of the team. The other boy 
was Jackson. 

HeUo ! ” Edward said, with surprise. I 
did n’t know you were on the hockey team. 
Who has to buck up against you this time? ” 

Nobody special ; I ’m going to play cover- 


100 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 

point,” Jackson answered. got into the 
game only because Jack Nolan came down 
yesterday with tonsilitis.” 

If you ’re only a sub, you must have the 
wonderful team,” said Edward. It ’s a good 
thing I ’m not in this game.” 

Charles looked at him and laughed, then 
squeezed his knee affectionately. 

It ’s great to see you again, old boy,” he said. 

In front of the Study the St. Timothy’s 
hockey team were assembled to welcome the 
visitors. After the greetings were over, Ed- 
ward pulled at his brother’s sleeve. 

There ’s an hour before luncheon, Charley,” 
he said. Won’t you spend it with me ? ” 

Yes, you bet. You might take me round 
and show me the sights. But first I want to 
drop my bag and my hockey-stick.” 

You can put them in my locker in the 
gymnasium ; you ’ll be dressing there for the 
game.” 

As they walked along together, Charles 
scanned the buildings with curious, interested 
eyes. 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CKEW 101 

I ’ve never before had a chance to see 
much of St. Timothy’s/’ he said. When I ’ve 
come over with the team, it ’s always been just 
to go straight to the athletic field and then 
home again. What ’s that ? ” 

That’s the Lower School. Over there is 
the Library. That big brown house is where 
Dr. Davenport lives. Do you have as fine 
buildings at St. J ohn’s ? ” 

Oh, much finer.” 

Go on.” Edward jostled his brother good- 
naturedly. 

^^Well, just as good. What’s this punk- 
looking place ? ” 

This is the gymnasium. The inside of it 
is pretty good, anyhow.” 

When they entered, Charles peered about 
with a critical interest. 

Almost as big as ours,” he acknowledged 
finally. Where are you going to put my 
things ? ” 

Edward took him down to the locker-room, 
and from there to the room where were the 
rowing-machines. 


102 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


I \e learned a lot on those things,” 
Edward said. you want to, Charley, 

you can sit down on one now, and I T1 coach 
you.” 

How cocky all you St. Timothy’s fellows 
do get ! ” observed Charles. 

Not a bit like you St. John’s fellows, then, 
are we ? ” rejoined Edward. 

But after that they ceased to squabble, and 
when Edward took his brother into the chapel 
and pointed out the memorial windows and let 
him examine the carved stalls in the choir and 
the lofty arches of the nave, Charles admitted 
that it was a fine building. ^^But then it ought 
to be,” he added. The same man built it that 
built ours. — Now let me have a look at some 
of your friends.” 

So Edward introduced Keating and Law- 
rence — who indeed had been lurking around 
in the hope that this opportunity might result 
— and presented them to Charles. 

Charles’s comment afterwards was : They 
seem like pretty good fellows, but why are 
they so polite ? ” 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 103 


Why,” said Edward, would n’t you try 
to be polite when you met a great man ? ” 

Oh, cut it out ! ” cried Charles, feeling 
very much pleased. 

At Mr. Elwood’s table Lawrence and Keat- 
ing expressed their admiration of Edward’s 
brother. 

But he ’s not so very big, is he, Ned ? ” 
said Lawrence. 

No. He weighs only a hundred and forty 
stripped.” 

Mighty well put together, though — does 
n’t walk on his ankle-bones.” 

Shut up,” said Keating. Did you notice 
what a keen eye he has ? I ’ll bet he made you 
stand round, Ned, when you were a kid.” 

But he could n’t make me go to St. John’s,” 
boasted Edward. 

He did not see his brother again until an 
hour later, when, at the edge of the rink, he 
stood by Charles and watched him put on his 
skating-boots. 

Charles, like the other St. John’s players, 
wore a blue jersey and blue stockings and 


104 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


knickerbockers ; some of them wore shin-pads, 
but Charles told Edward, who asked him about 
that, that he never could skate as well when 
he put them on. 

Besides Edward, there was a group of St. 
John’s fellows standing by and talking with 
Charles while he made his last preparations ; 
the St. John’s delegation of spectators had 
just arrived. There were not many of them, 
for only members of the Sixth Form were per- 
mitted to make the trip with the hockey team. 

Go after ’em, Charley ; you ’re the boy ! ” 
they called when Charles rose and glided away 
on his skates. 

The St. John’s team swung about on the 
ice, passing the puck from one to another, 
shooting it through the goals, lifting it on 
long tosses through the air. 

In a few moments the St. Timothy’s players, 
in red jerseys and red stockings, appeared 
and had their brief warming-up. Then the 
game began. 

For a time it was all wild rushing, sharp 
whacking and shouting, swift dashing and 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 105 


quick turning, but not a score. Then Blanch- 
ard in the middle of the field blocked the 
puck that Jackson from coverpoint had lifted 
on a long pass, and started with it. Charles 
and Isham, who were St. John’s left wing, 
bore down to intercept him ; Sheldon blocked 
off Isham, and then Blanchard, seeing that 
Charles in another moment would pen him 
against the side of the rink, shot the puck far 
across to Durant. 

Two St. John’s players made a rush for it as 
it slid by, but Durant trapped it, turned with 
it coolly, and darted off at an angle just as the 
two who had righted themselves came rushing 
at him. 

He ran it past Henderson, St. John’s point, 
he steered it cleverly by Jackson at cover- 
point, and then was directly in front of the 
goal ; Charles was flying in from the side in a 
desperate effort to reinforce the goal-keeper, 
but he swung with his hockey-stick just a 
moment late. Durant shot the goal, and a 
shout of satisfaction went up from St. Tim- 
othy’s for his cool and brilliant play. 


106 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


Game ’s young yet/’ Edward heard Charles 
say cheerfully to Jackson as he swung by for 
the line-up. 

A few minutes later Jackson at coverpoint 
stopped the puck and lifted it sailing to the 
farther end of the rink. The St. John’s for- 
wards were after it hard, and soon were scrim- 
maging for it with Blanchard and Sheldon 
and Bell. Suddenly Charles broke with the 
puck from the scrimmage, and sweeping in at 
a sharp angle he skimmed the disk past Wal- 
lace through the St. Timothy’s goal. The 
score was tied, and the small band of St. 
John’s supporters were making a great deal 
of noise. 

Shucks ! ” said Lawrence to Edward with 
disgust. Your brother never ought to have 
got that, even if he is your brother. Wallace 
acted as if he was asleep.” 

St. Timothy’s scored again, however, just 
before the end of the half; Sheldon broke 
through and carried the puck as far as Jack- 
son, who intercepted it, but could not hold 
it; Blanchard, following at Sheldon’s heels. 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 107 

snatched it from Jackson and sent it with a 
swift stroke flying through the goal. 

In the second half St. John’s seemed to 
have determined on a change of tactics. Hith- 
erto the game had been played by both teams 
with as little resort to ^^body-checking” as 
possible ; it had been a game of fleetness and 
dexterity, and St. Timothy’s had had a shade 
the better of it. 

Now the St. John’s players began charging 
the St. Timothy’s fellows, giving them the 
shoulder, butting into them at full speed ; in 
the first three minutes there were more upsets 
than there had been in the whole of the pre- 
ceding half. 

Sheldon got away from the scrimmage twice 
with the puck, only to be the victim each time 
of what was pretty nearly a head-on collision 
with Jackson. 

Lawrence and Keating began to exclaim 
heatedly against the roughness of the visitors, 
but Edward said, — 

Are they doing anything they ’re not al- 
lowed to do ? ” 


108 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Lawrence had to admit that he had detected 
no foul play. Just the same they ’re playing 
a rougher game than our fellows/’ he con- 
tended. 

Well, if they think they ’re better at that 
and there ’s no rule against it, why should n’t 
they?” Edward asked. 

It was certainly not long before St. Timothy’s 
adapted their game to the exigencies of the 
situation. 

Don’t let ’em knock you down that way 1 ” 
shouted Bell, who was captain. Go for ’em 
yourselves ! ” 

There began then to he a good deal of 
banging round on the ice, of butting one an- 
other, of spilling and sprawling. Sheldon was 
given another hard fall by Jackson. 

Jing ! ” said Edward. I know how his 
shoulder feels ! ” 

A moment later Charles had the puck and 
was racing with it up the side of the rink, close 
by the low board-fence ; Sheldon came at him. 
Charles sent the puck caroming against the 
fence and out behind Sheldon, whom he dodged 


THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW 109 


at the same moment ; then in full possession of 
the puck again, he charged out into the middle 
of the field and made for St. Timothy’s goal. 

Look at him hike along ! ” cried Keating. 

Edward was indeed thrilled ; his brother was 
surely skating faster than anybody on that rink 
had ever skated ; the others were all racing 
after him, yet all of them were losing distance, 
not gaining it. 

Bell rushed at him from coverpoint, but just 
as the collision was imminent Charles swerved, 
with the puck still in the crook of his hockey- 
stick, and then, having eliminated Bell from 
his path, he made furiously at the goal. Wal- 
lace, spreading himself out in it, made a con- 
vulsive effort, but the puck whizzed by a foot 
from his stick and once more the score was tied. 

Rah, rah, rah, St. John’s ! ” shouted the 
St. John’s Sixth Form, who were gathered to- 
gether on the farther side of the rink. Then 
individually they called out their congratula- 
tions to Charles : — 

Great run, Charley ! Do it again ! You ’ve 
got their nerve ! ” 


110 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Charles had been skating hard ; he leaned 
forward, resting on his hockey-stick, and panted 
for breath. But a moment later, when the puck 
had been put in play, he seized it and started 
off as if to repeat his performance ; he got 
by Sheldon in just the same way as before, 
and Lawrence remarked with chagrin, He ’s 
making a monkey of Sheldon.” 

But this time Durant cut in and by a clever 
swoop snatched the puck and sent it, with a 
long pass, across the rink out of danger. 

Sheldon’s blood was up ; the two tumbles 
which Jackson had given him, the two pocket- 
ings which he had received from Charles Cra- 
shaw, had affronted the pride of one who was 
perhaps something of a grand-stand player. 
So when a third time Charles snatched the 
puck from a scrimmage and started off with it, 
Sheldon dug his skates in the ice and came at 
him at a sharp angle, with his teeth clenched. 
Perhaps Crashaw was more than his match at 
finesse ; well, this time he would n’t get away 
with it. They might both go down together, 
but anyway Crashaw would n’t slip by. 



CHARLES WAS PITCHED OVER THE FENCE 






THE CAPTAIN OF THE CKEW 111 


Charles darted a glance at him as he came 
rushing on, and shoved the puck out tempt- 
ingly, meaning when Sheldon reached for it 
to whisk it as before up against the fence and 
recover it on the rebound. But this time Shel- 
don ignored the puck entirely ; he rushed into 
Charles headlong, and together they went down 
with a great crashing of sticks and clattering 
of skates. Charles was pitched over the fence 
out upon the hard frozen ground, where he lay 
motionless. 


CHAPTER VI 


A ST. John’s champion 
HEN his brother went down, Edward 



^ ' was standing with Lawrence and Keat- 
ing on the farther side of the rink. Whew, 
that was a hard one ! ” he exclaimed. Then he 
saw Charles lying motionless and the hockey 
players gathering round him. 

I — I’m afraid your brother ’s hurt,” Law- 
rence said. 

Edward was looking frightened, but he 
pulled a brave smile; guess they can’t 
knock Charles out,” he answered. 

He started to run ; the others followed. Dr. 
Vincent was just ahead of him, running too, 
and in the opening that the crowd made for 
the doctor Edward pushed through. 

It was a wonderful relief to him, before even 
he could see Charles, to hear his brother’s voice, 
although it sounded queer and choked. 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 113 


No, no, I ’m all right,” Charles was say- 
ing. Knocked me silly for a moment, I 
guess.” 

Then Edward saw him ; supported by Isham, 
he was holding a bloody handkerchief to his 
nose ; his face was pale and bloody. Sheldon 
was kneeling beside him, and with his own 
handkerchief was trying to help in staunching 
the flow of blood. 

Dr. Vincent put the handkerchiefs down 
from the boy’s face. Edward had for a moment 
a sensation of faintness, of horror ; would 
Charles, his handsome brother, be disfigured 
for life ? His nose was battered over to one 
side and was already thick and swollen. The 
doctor bathed his face from the pail of water 
that some one had brought, and then felt and 
pressed the injured nose. 

^^Hurt ? ” he said. 

^^Oh, some,” replied Charles. 

It ’s broken ; well, there ’s not much that 
can be done for it just now. — One moment.” 

Charles bore without wincing the treatment 
to which he was subjected. When it was over. 


114 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


he smiled at Edward, who had edged closer 
and got hold of his hand. 

Cheer up, Ned,’’ he said. What are you 
looking so blue about? You fellows have a 
chance to beat us yet.” 

There was laughter at that, the laughter of 
relief and of applause. 

With Charles showing such fortitude, Ed- 
ward felt that he must be equally stoical. So 
instead of saying what had been on his lips, 
— ^^0 Charley, does it hurt awfully? Are 
you all right? Is n’t there something I can 
do?” — he merely observed, ‘^Your face, 
Charley, is certainly a mess.” 

All the St. Timothy’s boys clapped when 
Charles got to his feet and skated again out 
on the ice ; and then Jim Payne called for a 
cheer, and they gave nine rahs^ with ^^Cra- 
shaw” at the end of them; that made Ed- 
ward’s eyes shine and his face flush, and he 
looked shyly away when Lawrence and Keat- 
ing glanced at him and smiled. 

Yet it was in pity almost as much as in ad- 
miration that the boys applauded Charles ; his 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 115 


appearance was that of one better qualified for 
the hospital than the rink. His face was gory, 
his blue jersey was smeared with blood; his 
swollen nose and bruised, discolored cheek 
gave him a desperate look. He swung round 
once or twice cautiously, then took a half- 
dozen long confident strokes. 

^^All right,” he said; and the game pro- 
ceeded. 

Within a few seconds Edward realized that 
St. Timothy’s had singled out Charles now as 
the vulnerable point, and were directing at 
him their most severe attack — just as in the 
football game Charles had singled out Ed- 
ward. The understanding came to Edward in 
a flash when Durant wheeled with the puck 
and charged clear across the rink at Charles. 

He did not get by ; there was a momentary 
scrimmage, and then the puck was hit wildly 
out into the centre, where Sheldon secured it. 
He pivoted an instant, hesitating; then shot 
it to Durant, who this time approached Charles 
with tempting deliberation. Charles made a 
rush ; Durant flicked the puck out of his reach. 


116 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


Blanchard captured it and got safely away 
from all the forwards, and past Jackson at 
coverpoint, only to be thwarted at the last by 
the goal-keeper, who sent the puck skimming 
out of danger amid the shouts of St. John’s. 

Charles picked it up at the side of the rink 
and started with it. He came down along the 
side, close by where Edward stood, and right 
there Sheldon rushed to meet him. 

Edward held his breath; was there to be 
another collision like the last? Perhaps the 
same question caused Sheldon a moment’s un- 
certainty — the question and the glimpse of 
Charles’s bloody face ; he slackened his speed 
a little, as if undecided whether to charge his 
man or to try to snatch the puck from under 
his hockey ; and in that instant of indecision 
Charles made a sudden swerve, seemed to leap 
into increased speed, and eluding Sheldon 
entirely, swept down the middle of the rink. 

In a moment he seemed surrounded by St. 
Timothy’s players; but then magically he 
emerged from them, still racing toward their 
goal, the puck clinging in the crook of his 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 117 


hockey, as if tied there. He was outskating 
them all ; only Durant, rushing in at an angle, 
had a chance to head him off, — Durant and 
Wallace the goal-keeper. 

The three came together squarely in front 
of the goal, came together and went down in a 
clashing heap; but even as they fell, St. John’s 
were shouting triumphantly, for at the very mo- 
ment of the collision Charles had shot the goal. 

When he got up, his nose was bleeding 
afresh, but he did not mind that. There was 
only a minute more to play, and the game was 
practically won. He skated slowly to his 
position, down the side of the rink ; holding 
his bloody handkerchief to his face, he saw 
Edward in the front rank of the subdued St. 
Timothy’s spectators, and Edward’s face was 
so different from all the others ! 

It was alight with pride and admiration and 
love ; Charles could not help reading all those 
things in a glance; it was not darkened by 
the chagrin and disappointment of defeat. 
There was not one of the St. John’s Sixth 
Formers who looked any happier. 


118 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Charles turned ; the play had begun again. 
There was one furious scrimmage ; then the 
timekeeper blew his whistle : the game was 
over. 

Instantly the St. John’s Sixth Formers were 
out on the ice, slipping, sliding, crowding 
round their men — especially about Charles ; 
they were jubilant and hilarious. The St. Timo- 
thy’s players left them in possession of the 
rink and silently sat down outside to take off 
their skating-boots ; and the St. Timothy’s 
spectators began silently to move away. But 
Edward lingered ; he came up to his brother 
and put his arm over his shoulder and pressed 
his hand. 

You old chump ! ” he said. What’s the 
use of our smashing you up — if you go ahead 
and lick us just the same?” 

Don’t make me laugh,” said Charles. ‘‘ It 
hurts.” He pointed to a cut on his lip. Help 
me off with these skating-boots, will you ? ” 
He stretched himself out on the ground ; 
Edward busied himself with the right foot and 
a St. John’s boy with the left, and Charles, 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 119 


lying on his back, introduced them to each 
other. The chorus of praise for his achieve- 
ment continued round him; the other mem- 
bers of the team were there, joining in with 
the Sixth Form spectators. Edward, working 
silently, thrilled with pride at hearing all that 
was said, and felt more kindly than ever to- 
wards St. John’s. 

He had a few moments alone with his 
brother in the gymnasium while Charles was 
changing his clothes. 

^^Does it hurt much ? ” he asked. It looks 
like the dickens.” 

No; it sort of feels in the way ; that ’s all. 
And my head aches a little from getting such 
a crack. — Look here, Ned ; you need n’t say 
anything about it when you write home.” 

Why not ? ” 

^^Oh, there’s no use in worrying them. 
Mother would probably go right up in the air 
if she heard I ’d broken my nose. It ’ll come 
back into shape in time.” 

You’d better stay over to-night and let 
Dr. Vincent fix it.” 


120 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Nothing to fix. If there is, I guess Dr. 
Barrett at St. John’s can do just as good a job 
as your man. Now, mind; you’re not to men- 
tion it when you write home.” 

All right,” said Edward reluctantly. It 
will sort of spoil the story, though.” 

What do you mean ? ” 

Why, I ’d like to tell them how you won 
the game, after being knocked out — when our 
fellows thought they could go through you, 
the way — the way you went through me.” 

Oh, shucks ! ” said Charles. No, don’t, 
Ned. I think it would only worry mother.” 

“All right.” Edward’s voice was resigned. 
“ But if I could tell it the way I saw it, she 
and father would be awfully proud of you — 
just like me, Charley.” 

“ Oh no, they would n’t ; they have too 
much sense.” Charles gave his brother an 
affectionate, humorous glance. 

But Edward persisted earnestly : “ They 
couldn’t help being proud. It was splendid, 
Charley. But I almost wish you hadn’t done 
it.” 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 121 

“Of course. You wanted your team to 
win.” 

‘‘ Yes, but it was n’t only that.” Edward 
hesitated shyly. It was mostly because you 
acted so differently from me.” 

But it was n’t at all the same thing.” 

Pretty much. Only you played a winning 
game and I played a losing one.” 

‘^Forget it.” 

can’t, Charley, until I have another 
chance to make good. And if I should n’t 
then — !” 

“Look here, kid, you’re getting foolish. 
All you want to do is to play the game, or 
row, or whatever it is, for all the fun there is 
in it — and just don’t think about having to 
make good. That ’s foolishness.” 

“ But when you go into a thing, you always 
feel that in a tight place you must come up to 
the scratch, don’t you? And you always do 
come up.” 

“ I just feel that I want to win, because it’s 
more fun when you’re winning. And so I go 
out to win. That’s all there is to it. — Isn’t 


122 THE CEASHAW BEOTHERS 


it disgusting — the way that new overcoat of 
mine crocks my collar ! ” 

It looks all right. — Then you won’t let 
me write home and tell about the game all 
that ’s really worth telling ? ” 

All that ’s worth telling is that St. John’s 
won.” 

You know that is n’t what the family 
would think.” 

You can say I made the winning score. But 
I ’d rather you would n’t go into any details.” 

I ’m sure I could make it just as fine and 
thrilling for father and mother as it was for 
me,” sighed Edward. You know, Charley, 
really the game could n’t have turned out in 
a way to please me more. It is n’t right, I sup- 
pose — but I can’t help caring more for you 
than for St. Timothy’s.” 

They both laughed, and just then Sheldon 
came up, his broad good-natured face as cheer- 
ful as if he had been participating in a victory. 

guess I needn’t have been so sym- 
pathetic, Crashaw,” he said. Wish I ’d stood 
you on your head again.” 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 123 


Why did n’t you ? ” 

I was just trying to make up my mind to 
do it when you got by/’ Sheldon acknowledged. 
‘^I’m too tender-hearted; that’s what’s the 
matter with me. — Little brother here is get- 
ting to be quite the oarsman. You going to 
row this year, Crashaw?” 

^^Yes, I’m expecting to.” 

^^Well, I shouldn’t wonder if there ’d be 
a Crashaw on the winning crew this year, as 
well as on the losing one.” 

I like your news better than your way of 
putting it,” Charles answered. 

When they had shaken hands and Sheldon 
had departed, Charles turned to Edward. 

“That is pretty good news,” he said. “I 
suppose that coming from the captain of the 
School crew it ’s pretty straight?” 

“ Oh, Sheldon has n’t given a thought to the 
crew yet,” Edward answered. “He was just 
being pleasant.” 

“ He would n’t have said a thing like that 
without some reason ! ” 

“ Mr. Burns may have told him I was pro- 


124 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


mising. But how can Sheldon know as early 
as this — before half the fellows have begun 
rowing?’’ 

I guess he’s a good fellow but not much 
of a captain,” Charles said thoughtfully. ^^He 
didn’t act right this afternoon.” 

What, in knocking you down the way he 
did?” 

‘^No; in not knocking me down again. He 
knows he made a mistake ; that ’s why he said 
he was too tender-hearted. It was n’t that ex- 
actly; he lost his nerve. I bet you Sheldon’s 
a fellow that loses his nerve.” 

No, I don’t believe he does.” 

You see. He’s a good fellow, but he’s 
a sort of a quitter, I ’ll bet anything. You see.” 

The very word quitter” had a sobering 
effect on Edward. To hear it applied to one 
who, he felt, deserved it far less than he did 
himself, made him very uncomfortable, and he 
became silent. Charles attributed his silence to 
disapproval of such derogatory remarks about 
the St. Timothy’s captain. 

Oh well,” said Charles pacifically, that ’s 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 125 


just a notion I have, and of course I don’t 
know him. I think he ’s a mighty good fellow 
just the same, and I ’m awfully glad we ’re to be 
classmates at college, so that I ’ll learn to know 
him better. — Here, I can carry my own bag.” 
Please let me,” begged Edward. 

When they emerged from the gymnasium, 
snow was falling, the twilight of the early even- 
ing had descended, lights shone from the win- 
dows of the School buildings. In front of the 
Study waited the two open sleighs, and by the 
gate were clustered a group of boys — mem- 
bers of the St. Timothy’s and St. John’s hockey 
teams, exchanging good wishes and farewells. 

Hurry up, Charley ! Hurry up ! ” cried some 
of the St. John’s boys. We’ve all been wait- 
ing for you.” 

Charles shook hands all round with the St. 
Timothy’s team; last of all with his brother. 
Edward murmured in his ear, just as he was 
getting into the sleigh, Good-bye, Charley. 
I wish I were more like you ! ” 

What?” Charles looked round at him with 
the startled exclamation. 


126 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

But there was no time for more words ; Isham, 
the St. John’s captain, stood up in the forward 
sleigh and called for three cheers for St. Tim- 
othy’s ; and at the end of them the horses were 
off at a jump, pursued by the answering cheers 
of St. Timothy’s for St. John’s. 

Edward wrote to his mother that night; 
with the restrictions that had been imposed he 
tried to make his account of the game as graphic 
and stirring as possible — especially all that 
had to do with Charles. He was dissatisfied 
with his effort, and perhaps would have been 
even more displeased with it could he have seen 
his mother and father laughing together over 
one of the most impassioned passages. 

His spelling was never very good, and it 
became more erratic than usual when his pen 
was driven by excitement. 

‘^He went through the whole bunch like 
magic,” Edward wrote. ‘‘I was thrilled to the 
bone when I saw him emmerge, still carrying 
the puck and skateing like the wind. In an- 
other moment he had shot the goal, and I was 
proud to think that he was my brother.” 


A ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 127 


It was rather chilling to receive his mother’s 
letter in reply, with all the mis-spelled words 
listed and corrected. 

^^But it is nice to have you so enthusiastic 
about your brother’s performance, and so proud 
of him,” she wrote. ^‘1 am glad you gave us 
such a good account ; I suppose it was Charles’s 
modesty, but from his letter about the game I 
could n’t have told that he did anything note- 
worthy. We’re so glad that he distinguished 
himself, and that you were there to enjoy it 
and to tell us of it.” 

With the hockey season at an end, Edward 
expected that Sheldon would settle down to his 
work with the crew. But the captain was hardly 
more regular in his attendance than before. 
When the ice was good, he would be skating; 
when there was no ice, he would spend part of 
his time practising his feats in the gymnasium. 
The crew-squad grew in size slowly, but Ed- 
ward retained his place in the first division and 
rowed regularly at number three . Davis, a Sixth 
Former who had recently come out as a candi- 
date, was put in at stroke; Sheldon himself 


128 THE CEASHAW BROTHERS 


rowed seven, and Grant of the Fifth Form 
rowed five. The other places were constantly 
undergoing change ; hut it appeared as if Mr. 
Burns and Sheldon had definitely chosen four 
members of the crew. 

Edward was elated of course at the in- 
dication, and did not regret the fact that 
he was no longer asked to run the squad ; in 
Sheldon’s absence Davis, the Sixth Former, 
naturally took charge. 

The captain’s carelessness occasioned less 
grumbling among the fellows than might have 
been expected. They recognized Mr. Burns as 
the real coach and felt that with him at hand 
an intelligent eye was always on them. Be- 
sides, Sheldon was so good-natured and jovial 
that he seemed to command a special indulg- 
ence. 

And then it was understood among his crew 
candidates that he was to take a prominent part 
in the gymnastic exhibition which was to be 
held the night before Easter ; and of course 
he had to keep himself in practice for that. 

Easter was always the last day of the winter 


ST. JOHN’S CHAMPION 129 


term. Edward wrote to his mother, urging her 
to come up for it. 

The chapel service is something that you 
ought to see ; every one says so ; and then the 
night before Easter there ’s to be an athletic 
exhibition in the gymnasium. You mightn’t 
care much about the horizontal bar and flying 
rings and aU that, but I guess father would n’t 
mind seeing it. And the two crews, Pythian 
and Corinthian, are to give an exhibition of 
rowing on the rowing-machines. I shall be in 
that, because I ’m on the Pythians. It won’t 
be especially exciting, but I guess maybe I ’d 
row better if you and father were in the audi- 
ence. And then the day after Easter we could 
all go home together ; that would be great.” 

He was delighted when his mother wrote 
that she and his father would come. 


CHAPTER VII 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 

E dward met his father and mother at 
the station ; his mother spied him before 
he saw her, and ran to him along the plat- 
form, her bright, eager face radiant, her eyes 
shining. He saw her then and with a spring 
seized her in his arms ; and after he had kissed 
her and his father she clung to him and looked 
up into his face enraptured. 

^‘Come, Helen,” said Mr. Crashaw at last. 
^^Let the husky boy lug one of these bags 
for the old man.” 

Edward seized both the bags and carried 
them to a cab ; during the drive to the 
hotel his mother sat beside him caressing his 
hand. 

^^Oh, my dear, it’s good to see you and 
touch you and hear you again ! ” she ex- 
claimed. ^^And you’re getting to be almost 
good-looking ! ” 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 131 


Mother/’ Edward entreated, don’t be an 
old silly ! ” 

She answered with the low laugh that he 
loved, and sat caressing his hand. 

I hope you won’t mind,” he said. “ I ’ve 
invited Francis Keating and Joe Lawrence to 
come in and dine with us to-night ; you know, 
they ’re about my best friends.” 

Of course we want to meet your friends, 
Edward ; I ’m glad you invited the boys.” 

She could not help being glad, for Keating 
and Lawrence revealed to her sympathetic 
eyes the most devoted affection and admiration 
for Edward ; and besides that, their apprecia- 
tion of the hotel food was so appealing ! 

Just think ! ” exclaimed Lawrence, after 
acknowledging that he would like a second 
plate of ice-cream, ^^this is the night for 
corned-beef hash, Edward ! ” 

And prunes,” Keating reminded him. 

The worst of it is, I can’t stuff myself the 
way you fellows can,” complained Edward. 

I have to row to-night.” 

He kept looking anxiously at his watch, and 


132 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


the moment they had finished dinner he hur- 
ried them out of the hotel and into a carriage. 
He himself sat on the box with the coachman ; 
and so during the drive to the School Law- 
rence and Keating were able to carry on their 
eulogy of him without embarrassment or inter- 
ference. 

^^He’s about the best-liked fellow in our 
form/’ said Lawrence. 

He ’s one of the most popular fellows in 
the whole school/’ declared Keating. 

He ’s never stood at the head of his class,” 
observed Mr. Crashaw. 

Oh, Keat here always has that place 
cinched,” answered Lawrence. 

I ’d be glad to change with Edward if 
I could do the things he can ! ” 

The wistful, honest admiration in Keating’s 
voice touched Mr. Crashaw, and he made no 
other jocularly disparaging comment about his 
son. 

When Mr. and Mrs. Crashaw were seated 
in the front rank of the spectators in the 
gymnasium and Edward had gone to dress 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 133 


for the rowing exhibition, Keating and Law- 
rence pointed out the various personages of 
the School. Mrs. Crashaw was especially in- 
terested in seeing Blanchard and Payne and 
other boys whom Edward had mentioned 
often in his letters. 

The gymnasium filled rapidly; nearly all 
the floor-space was occupied with benches; 
only at the end was reserved a place for the 
performers; there were set up the rowing- 
machines, the parallel bars, the horizontal 
bar, and the inclined ladders. 

The rattle of talk and laughter was sud- 
denly submerged in applause ; ten little First 
Formers, clad in white gymnasium suits and 
carrying, each one, a pair of tiny Indian clubs, 
emerged from the stairway at the left and 
trotted forward in front of the rowing-ma- 
chines. Then they began swinging their clubs, 
all keeping time together, their small bare arms 
twinkling, their chests out, some of them with 
smiling faces, some of them serious and intent. 

^‘The little dears exclaimed Mrs. Cra- 
shaw. 


134 THE CEASHAW BROTHERS 


They executed intricate twirls and flourishes 
smoothly and in unison ; and at last, with a 
simultaneous flourish, they tucked their clubs 
under their arms, bobbed a little bow, and 
amidst applause pattered off to the stairway. 

Next came the vaulting contest, won by 
Watts, captain of the School track team; 
Sheldon was second. Then two Fifth Formers 
with basket-like helmets on their heads and 
padded sweaters on their shoulders engaged 
in a spirited but bloodless fencing-bout ; after 
which Payne and Blanchard, who were two of 
the best boxers in the School, had a sparring- 
match which was not quite bloodless and which 
provoked great hilarity among the boys. 

Mrs. Crashaw thought that was almost too 
much, even though assured by Lawrence that 
Payne and Blanchard were bosom friends; 
she preferred the performances on the hori- 
zontal bar and on the parallel bars, in both of 
which Sheldon took part, — not very glori- 
ously, for he failed in attempting feats which 
the others executed. Mrs. Crashaw had by 
that time begun to notice him ; she commented 


FAKEWELL TO A HERO 136 


on his splendid muscles, the ease with which 
they served him. 

And yet he never seems to he quite the 
best in anything,” she observed with some 
disappointment, after the competition on the 
parallel bars had been awarded to a Fifth 
Former named Bird. ^^I’m sorry, for I’ve 
heard Edward speak of him, and I know how 
much he likes him.” 

He’s the best oarsman in school, I guess,” 
said Lawrence. ^^And he’s good in nearly 
everything, even if he isn’t always the best.” 

Standing on the stairs with the other mem- 
bers of the crew, all dressed for rowing, Ed- 
ward had been looking on at the performances, 
watching Sheldon especially, and feeling some- 
how disappointed, too, because Sheldon did not 
do better. He failed on feats which Edward 
had seen him accomplish with ease before a 
group of admiring little kids. 

Charles’s remark about Sheldon, He ’s a 
quitter,” flashed into Edward’s mind. Could 
his brother after all be right in that ? Charles 
was so seldom wrong! 


136 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


The Corinthian crew filed out and took 
their seats on the rowing-machines. 

Attention ! ” cried Cole, the captain, and 
they all came forward to the full reach and 
waited. 

Stroke ! ” They began to row. 

Edward from the stairway watched them 
critically. Durant was rowing stroke, and Ed- 
ward admired the way in which he gradually 
raised the speed until in the last minute of 
the exhibition the Corinthian crew were swing- 
ing through it just as rhythmically as at the 
beginning, yet with a tremendous acceleration 
of power. 

wonder if we’re as smooth a crew as 
that,” thought Edward. It would be a severe 
test to go on after such an exhibition. 

But when the Pythians rowed, there was at 
least one person in the audience who was quite 
unconscious whether they were doing it well 
or not. 

Mrs. Crashaw saw but one member of that 
crew; on him she held her eyes. And when 
they had finished, and Lawrence said, They 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 137 

don’t row as smoothly as the Corinthians, do 
they?” she answered, Don’t they? I was 
just watching Edward.” 

Edward himself knew that they had n’t 
rowed as well — knew it before even the ap- 
plause, so much lighter than that which the 
Corinthians had received, informed him. From 
his place at number three he had seen the 
break just behind Sheldon. 

Shucks ! We were rotten ! ” Dillaway, the 
bow oar, exclaimed on the stairway. 

Oh, well,” Sheldon answered, races are 
n’t won on just form.” 

The ladder-climbing was the next event on 
the programme; Fraser and Sheldon were the 
only entries, and Fraser was in the Infirmary 
with the measles. So Sheldon stepped out 
alone. 

Edward waited on the stairs before going 
down to dress. He saw Sheldon rub his hands 
with resin, then start springing up the long, 
slanting ladder, slap, slap, slap, chinning him- 
self and jumping up from each rung. 

Halfway up his speed slackened ; each leap 


138 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

seemed to require a greater gathering of him- 
self for the effort ; at last he changed to the 
easier hand-over-hand method, and even with 
that was unable to reach the top. Six or eight 
rungs below the horizontal ladder his strength 
failed, and he stopped. 

There was a great outburst of applause for 
him as he came slowly down ; but Edward on 
the stairs was disappointed again. Sheldon 
brushed past him and went downstairs on the 
run. 

Edward glanced at him from time to time 
while they dressed ; he had never seen Sheldon 
so silent. 

After a while Sheldon said to him, though 
just as if he were talking to himself, What ’s 
the use of practising stunts if you can’t do 
them when you want to ! ” 

You did them all pretty well,” said Ed- 
ward. 

Pretty well ! ” answered Sheldon in a tone 
of scorn, and walked away. 

Edward knew exactly how he was feeling, 
and he was so sympathetic he wished he could 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 139 


run after him and say, I Ve been there too ; 
I know what it is.” But he was younger than 
Sheldon and diffident ; he felt that it might be 
fresh to do that. 

He knew that Sheldon was thinking him- 
self exactly what Charles had thought him, 
and that he was unhappy about it and dis- 
heartened. Somehow, having been so close to 
him in the moment when he had revealed the 
feeling depressed Edward. He had hked Shel- 
don from the first, and in spite of all the boy’s 
defects as a captain had grown to like him 
more and more. 

When Edward rejoined his father and 
mother, he was rather subdued; they attributed 
it to the fact that the Corinthian crew had 
done better than the Pythians. 

At the end of the exhibition Mr. Barclay 
made a little speech and awarded the medals 
to the prize-winners; when he called out. 
Ladder Climbing, won by T. P. Sheldon,” 
there was a faint whisper of laughter which 
was not quite extinguished by the applause. 
Edward was sorry again for Sheldon and angry 


140 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


at those who laughed ; it was bad enough to 
win a prize when no one else had contested for 
it ; to have the award received with even the 
least mocking laughter was too much. 

Just the same/’ Edward said to Keating 
and Lawrence, it was sandy of Sheldon to go 
into that thing all by himself. It took nerve.” 

Um/’ said Lawrence. Don’t see why he 
didn’t do better, though.” 

Even on the next day, Easter Sunday, Ed- 
ward’s pleasure was clouded. He had brought 
Sheldon up to his father and mother, and Mr. 
Crashaw had congratulated the boy on his 
athletic prowess. 

Sheldon, without meaning to be ungracious, 
said, Oh, I don’t deserve to be congratulated 
on that, Mr. Crashaw. Anybody can win an 
event if he ’s the only one in it.” 

^^But I was thinking of the showing you 
made in so many events — your versatility,” 
said Mr. Crashaw. 

Sheldon could find no answer except a dole- 
ful smile. Afterwards when he saw Edward 
alone for a moment he said to him, I guess 


FAKEWELL TO A HERO 141 


your father thinks I ’m an awful stiff. But I 
feel so differently from the way he supposes 
I do — that ’s all.’’ 

Edward understood : he knew that a fellow 
who feels that he has been a quitter likes most 
of all to shut himself off from the world, and 
least of all to hear well-intended compliments. 
Sheldon was still in low spirits the next morn- 
ing when Edward said good-bye to him. 

At home the Crashaw family found Charles, 
who had arrived from St. John’s by an earlier 
train. Edward was disappointed by Charles’s 
nose, which looked just as swollen and dis- 
torted as when he had last seen it ; and Mrs. 
Crashaw, quite unprepared for such a dis- 
figurement, was shocked by it. She insisted on 
his placing himself in the hands of a specialist 
at once. 

In consequence Charles submitted the next 
day to an operation, from which he returned 
with his nose in a plaster bandage. 

Always something in a sling when I have 
a vacation,” he grumbled. A hand or a nose 
or something.” 


142 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Being sensitive about his appearance, he 
kept closely to the house and spent even more 
time on the rowing-machine than he had done 
during the Christmas holidays. And on ac- 
count of the surgeon’s requirements, his re- 
turn to school was delayed for a week after 
the vacation had expired and after Edward had 
gone back to St. Timothy’s. 

So Edward did not see the nose when it at 
last emerged ; but Charles sent him a glowing 
account of it. 

Not larger but handsomer than before,” 
he wrote. I am sorry you could not be present 
at the unveiling. Everything came off with- 
out a hitch, and once more I have the kind 
of nose that mother used to like. I’m off for 
St. John’s to-morrow.” 

This good news reached Edward on the 
day when the candidates for the St. Timothy’s 
baseball nine were called out. Jim Payne 
made an earnest appeal to Edward to give up 
rowing ; he was needed on first base ; it would 
be the weakest batting nine that St. Timothy’s 
had had in years. 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 143 


But Edward had now had his first experi- 
ence of rowing on the pond and was enjoying 
it; and he knew that his chances of being 
chosen on the School crew were good. So he 
had not been moved by Payne’s appeal, and 
the captain had departed gloomily. 

It was just after the last recitation of the 
morning, and Edward still lingered on the 
Study steps, taking long breaths and exulting 
in the freshness of the wind and sun. 

This was the first morning in which there 
had been the premonitory warmth and soft- 
ness of summer ; the birds were singing gayly 
from the rectory hedge, the sunlight illum- 
inated the heart of every young-leaved tree, 
flooded through elm and maple, tinting the 
green with gold, and swept, chasing the shad- 
ow of a cloud, over the chapel lawn. 

Edward was thinking how fine it would be 
that afternoon to be rowing bare-armed on 
the pond, to be feeling for the first time warm 
without a sweater and strong with all the 
freedom of naked muscles ; — he drew in an- 
other deep breath ; and just at that moment 


144 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Lawrence came up to him with a portentous 
face. 

Well, is n’t it fierce? ” said Lawrence. 

What ? ” asked Edward. 

Have n’t you heard ? Sheldon has to leave 
school.” 

What do you mean ? ” 

He flunked his exams; they told him this 
morning.” 

They ’ve fired him ! ” Edward exclaimed, 
aghast. 

No, not that exactly. The Rector said that 
he was n’t up to doing Sixth Form work, and 
that if he really wanted to enter college next 
fall, he would have to leave school and tutor. 
So he ’s going to-morrow.” 

Who told you all this ? ” 

Joe Davis, on your crew. He wanted me 
to tell you there would n’t be any rowing to- 
day — and then he told me why.” 

It ’s tough ! ” said Edward. Poor old 
Sheldon!” 

He ’s all broken up about it, Davis 
says.” 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 145 

They walked away together in a sorrowful 
silence. 

At the School that day at luncheon every 
one was talking of the calamity. There was 
general depression ; it was not merely because 
the loss of the captain of the crew would be 
serious, but it was also a tribute to Sheldon’s 
personality. 

There were other boys in the Sixth Form 
who were more respectfully admired because 
they had greater force — Blanchard, for in- 
stance, and perhaps Durant and Payne ; but 
Sheldon’s following adored him. There was 
hardly a Third Former who frequented the 
gymnasium who had not had the privilege of 
feeling Sheldon’s muscles and calling him 
Tom ; he was kind and friendly to them all, 
and always pretended to know them even if 
he could n’t remember their names ; and his 
very enjoyment of their admiration endeared 
him to them. 

If everybody is so gloomy about it here,” 
said Lawrence, it must be a regular funeral over 
at the Upper ; I wonder how Tom stands it.” 


146 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


It must be pretty hard for him/’ agreed 
Edward. But sort of nice too. — I don’t sup- 
pose he ’ll want to see many fellows to say 
good-bye — just a few of his best friends/’ he 
added rather wistfully. 

That afternoon he loitered by the edge of 
the pond and watched the Corinthian crew 
row ; Cole had his men out in spite of the 
tragedy. One or two Pythians who stood by, 
moping like Edward, were disposed to criticize 
him for it ; they thought it would have shown 
a better feeling if he had ordered a day of 
rest in recognition of his adversary’s misfor- 
tune. 

Discussion of the point ofPered them some 
desultory amusement, but Edward did not pay 
much attention to it. He would have liked 
to be out on the pond with the Corinthians ; 
perhaps he was heartless even to think of such 
a thing ! His fine green and gold day had 
turned dreary — and what must it be for 
Sheldon ! 

Davis came up and touched him on the 
shoulder. 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 147 


Tom would like to see you, Crashaw,” he 
said. He ’s in his room at the Upper.” 

There Edward found Sheldon sitting inef- 
ficiently with a trunk half -packed and a muss 
of books, clothes, and athletic trophies on the 
floor and on the bed. 

I always hate to pack,” he said, with a 
doleful smile. And this is worse than usual.” 

I ’m pretty good at it,” said Edward. Let 
me help.” 

No, thanks.” Sheldon spoke more briskly. 

I ’m the only fellow that can handle this 
mess. I ’ll have lots of time when you and the 
others are in Study. I thought I might n’t 
see you again, Edward, and I wanted to say 
good-bye.” 

I ’m awfully sorry you ’re going, Tom.” 

‘‘So am I. Well, it’s my own fault. If I 
had n’t been such a stupid dolt ! It was n’t 
altogether stupidity, either ; that ’s the worst 
of it.” 

“ You ’ve been doing so many things,” Ed- 
ward said consolingly. 

“ Yes, and letting everything slide that was 


148 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


worth while ! I ’ll tell you what my trouble was, 
Edward. I wanted to be picked at the end of 
the year as the greatest all-round athlete in 
the School. I thought I could be — football, 
hocke}^, rowing, all those things — all I needed 
to clinch it was to show off in the gymnasium 
besides. But when it came really to the point, 
with the audience there and all — I did only 
about half as well as I’d done in practice. 
That ’s the way I ’ve been in everything; that ’s 
the way I was in these exams that threw me 
down. I ’m a great big showy duffer — and no 
good at all in the crisis. But I ’m going to 
be good ” — he caught up the pillow from the 
bed and slammed it viciously at the wall. You 
bet I am. I ’m going to get into college this 
fall if I have to study twenty-four hours a day. 
And when I get in ! — ” He gave the pillow 
a finishing punch. 

Edward was rather embarrassed at such an 
outpouring of soul; he did not know quite 
what to say. 

Don’t you suppose nearly everybody has 
sort of given up at times, when really they 


FAEEWELL TO A HEKO 149 


might have had a little more fight left in 
them ? ’’ he asked. 

At times, maybe, but it seems as if it had 
got to he a habit with me,” responded Sheldon 
gloomily. I know that you fellows must have 
been thinking I was a mighty poor crew cap- 
tain ; but I ’d come back this term meaning 
to stick to my job and show you I was n’t 
a mistake — and somehow I never thought of 
being tripped up by those examinations.” 

guess we would all have known you 
were n’t a mistake,” said Edward. 

But I was ! A captain that has to quit 
his crew ! — W ell, I did n’t mean to get you 
up here just to cry on your shoulder. I wanted 
to do the last thing I can as captain : I want- 
ed to have a little talk with every fellow that ’s 
sure of a place in the St. Timothy’s boat. 
You ’re one.” 

“ You really think so ? ” 

Of course. Mr. Burns has you picked all 
right. There will be you and Davis and Du- 
rant and Cochrane and Quinby; you five are 
sure. I hope you ’ll elect Durant captain. He 


150 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


really ought to have been captain instead of 
me ; that ’s one thing I wanted to say to you. 
Another is : I’m coming up to see the race 
with St. John’s if my tutor lets me. And if 
they lick you, why, I shall feel it was probably 
because of my leaving and busting up the crew 
that had chosen me captain ; but if you win, 
I ’ll feel — well, that I was captain of you for 
a little while and that I miffht have been there 
too.” 

He turned away and stood for a moment 
gazing out of the window. Then he came back 
to Edward, who had been sitting with down- 
cast eyes, unwilling to see Sheldon’s emotion 
or to show his own. 

You like me enough to want me to have 
a good time when I come back, and not a poor 
one — don’t you, Edward ? ” 

There was an affectionate playfulness in 
Sheldon’s voice, in his smile; and Edward, 
looking up, only nodded ; he felt too uncer- 
tain of his voice to speak. 

All right,” Sheldon continued, that ’s 
all I wanted to say to you as captain of the 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 151 


crew. But it was n’t just as captain that I 
wanted to see you, Edward, and say good-bye. 
It ’s because I like you too — and I hope that 
we T1 still be friends a couple of years from 
now when we ’re both in college.” 

He held out his hand, and Edward grasped 
it. 

Thank you,” he said. guess we will. 
I guess everybody that goes from this school 
to college with me will be a friend of yours, 
Tom.” 

He went down the stairs of the Upper School 
with a dimness in his eyes which even the 
bright sunshine of the afternoon did not im- 
mediately clear away. 

The next morning, a few moments before 
chapel, when most of the boys were waiting in 
front of the Study for the bell to ring, a car- 
riage with a trunk strapped on behind drove 
up to the gate. From it alighted Blanchard 
and Davis and Durant, and last of all Sheldon. 

Soon a group had gathered round him, 
Edward among them and Mr. Barclay and Mr. 
Burns, and many little boys. Sheldon was busy 


152 THE CKASHAW BKOTHERS 


shaking hands; there was a good deal of 
laughter and forced gayety. 

Don’t forget and mark me absent from 
chapel this morning, Mr. Barclay,” he said. 

And Mr. Barclay answered with a mournful 
smile, I wish that I could, and that you ’d 
be here to-morrow to write the report, Tom.” 

Sheldon’s lip quivered then for the first 
time; he stiffened it and caught Edward’s 
hand. 

Good-bye again, old man,” he murmured. 

Wait, I ’ve got a present for you ; ” and he 
put into Edward’s hand the pocket-mirror over 
which their acquaintance had begun. 

Edward smiled and glanced at it with blurred 
eyes. 

A small boy at Sheldon’s side, one of his 
gymnasium satellites, was looking up timidly. 

Hello, Jasper ! ” Sheldon patted the small 
one’s shoulder. You ’ll not forget how to 
skin the cat, will you?” 

The chapel bell began to ring. Sheldon 
stepped back into the carriage; the driver 
touched the horses with the whip. 


FAREWELL TO A HERO 153 


Good-bye ! ” shouted the boys. 

Good-bye ! ” cried Sheldon. 

As the carriage mounted the hill, other boys 
hurrying down on the way to chapel took o£E 
their hats and waved and caught Sheldon’s 
farewell salute; and only one boy who was 
late, and who therefore had no right to see it, 
had a glimpse of Sheldon sitting there dabbing 
his handkerchief to his eyes. 


CHAPTER VIII 


SHELDON S SUCCESSOR 


S HELDON’S withdrawal from the School 
made Edward’s position in one respect 
easier : Jim Payne, who had been displeased 
by his refusal to play baseball, was now molli- 
fied. He came to Edward that very day and 
said, W ell, I suppose I can’t blame you any 
longer if you insist on rowing.” 

^^I certainly hope you won’t blame me,” 
Edward answered. 

I suppose, with Sheldon gone, you ’ll be 
needed in the boat about as much as on the 
nine,” Payne conceded. I wish there were 
two of you, Edward.” 

I guess you think I ’m a great deal better 
than I am.” 

No, I don’t. I remember the first time I 
ever saw you stand up to bat, and I knew 
right off what you could do. You can’t fool 
me ; I know a natural-born hitter when I see 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 155 

one. It’s too bad to think of all that talent 
being wasted. But as it stands now, I can’t 
blame you.” Payne sighed and turned away. 

When, a few weeks later, Edward learned 
that Keating had been chosen to play first 
base on the nine, and saw Keating’s joy, he 
was more glad than ever that he himself was 
rowing and so could not deprive his friend of 
the chance. 

Keating treated his table ” to strawberries 
by way of celebrating his achievement. Ed- 
ward spoke afterwards to Payne about it and 
expressed his pleasure that Keating had made 
the team. 

He ’s great on first base,” Payne said. 
^^He can’t miss ’em — pick-ups, wide balls, 
high ones, he eats ’em all. But at the bat he ’s 
a mess. He can’t hit for little green apples.” 

Maybe he ’ll learn.” 

He does n’t seem to. If a fellow has n’t a 
natural eye for hitting the ball, you can’t teach 
him much.” 

If you think it might help, I ’ll coach him 
in the noon hour.” 


156 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

I wish you would. Look here ; bring him 
down to the field to-morrow.” 

As soon as the Greek recitation the next 
day was at an end, Edward and Keating hur- 
ried to the field. Bell and Payne were already 
there ; they threw off coats and neckties and 
collars and were soon at work practising 
against the batting-net. Lawrence had come 
down to look on, and made himself useful in 
chasing balls. 

Keating was, Edward had to acknowledge, 
a discouraging subject. He was willing enough, 
but he lacked weight and strength ; he could n’t 
seem to help stepping away from the ball ; and 
he invariably swung his bat in a slant instead 
of in a horizontal plane. Bell pitched easy 
curves to him, but Keating knocked almost 
nothing but pop flies. 

Edward took the bat and stood at the plate, 
stepped forward, swung at an imaginary ball 
— went through the motions again and again, 
did them slowly and did them fast ; and Keat- 
ing watc^d intelligently and listened intel- 
ligently, but could n’t himself perform. 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 


157 


Let me hit out one or two ; perhaps then 
you ’ll get on to it better,” said Edward. 

He planted himself with the bat over his 
shoulder. Bell sent a swift inshoot ; Edward 
met it squarely, and the next moment Law- 
rence was chasing a hne ball far in the out- 
field. 

If I could paste one of those in a lifetime 
I ’d die happy,” sighed Keating. 

Bell was rather annoyed at having one of 
his curves hit so hard. 

I gave you a chance on that ball,” he said. 

Bet you can’t do it again, Crashaw.” 

Come on,” said Edward, and squared 
himself. 

The next ball that Bell pitched was wild, 
and Edward let it go by. Then came a slow 
out-drop to tempt him ; but he refused to strike, 
and it curved wide of the plate. The third ball 
he swung at, and drove, again on a hne, into 
left field. 

Lawrence was going after it, but Durant, 
who appeared at that moment, walking with 
Wallace at the edge of the field, saved him 


158 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


the trouble. After throwing it in, Durant came 
up to the ball-players. Bell, with his spirit 
roused, was determined now to strike Edward 
out ; he had pitched two wild balls in the ef- 
fort when Durant interrupted. 

“ Crashaw,” he called, you ’ve not quit 
rowing for baseball, have you ? ” 

Oh no,’’ said Edward. I ’m just fooling.” 

Well, look here a moment.” Durant hast- 
ened forward. I think you ’d better not do 
this sort of thing. You mustn’t risk getting 
hit and maybe hurt.” 

There ’s not much danger.” 

I know, but you might get a crack on the 
arm or the wrist or the head that would spoil 
your rowing for a while. I wish you would n’t.” 

All right.” Edward relinquished the bat 
to Keating. There, you see the principle of 
the thing, Keat ; step right out at the ball 
and meet it with your whole body in the blow ; 
don’t just swipe at it with your arms.” 

What are you doing ? Coaching him ? ” 
asked Durant curiously. 

‘‘ Yes — trying to.” 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 


159 


^‘All right — only don’t stand up to the 
hall yourself.” Durant strolled away. 

I wish old Tom Sheldon were here ; he 
would n’t have been so fussy,” muttered 
Payne. When was Durant elected captain — 
only yesterday, wasn’t he? What’s he try- 
ing to do — show his authority ? ” 

No, he ’s all right ; I might get hurt, I 
suppose. I guess Keat sees the idea. Try 
again, Keat.” 

But neither that day nor on subsequent days, 
when Edward supervised his friend’s batting, 
did Keating display any improvement. 

guess I ’ll just have to swipe at the ball 
and trust to luck,” Keating said at last dis- 
consolately. If I could sometime make one 
good hit, so as to have some confidence! ” 

But he went through the Pythian-Corinth- 
ian series without ever achieving that single 
hit; his position at the foot of the batting 
list was assured. 

The days grew warm; it was the most 
pleasant season of all the school year. With 
the scent of the lilacs coming through the 


160 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


windows, with the glimpse of the sunny bright 
rectory lawn to take one’s eye from the text- 
book, it was harder to fix one’s attention in 
the class-room than it had been during the 
dreary days of winter; yet the confinement 
was in a way less irksome too. There was so 
much more to look forward to when one did 
get out of doors ! And out of doors Edward 
was sure he had never had so good a time. 
Every afternoon to drive with the crew the 
two miles to the pond, shouting songs, breath- 
ing in the fragrance of the pines along the 
road, yelling at the chipmunks that raced on 
stone walls and up tree-trunks — that was a 
fine way of settling one’s comfortable training- 
table dinner. 

Then there was a pleasant scramble down 
a forest path, with columbines and lady-slip- 
pers all along it to snatch for one’s button- 
hole — except that usually one was too busy 
undressing as one ran. In the boat-house it 
was a race to see who could strip first; always 
within seven minutes they had the shell in 
the water and were bending to the stroke. 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 


161 


There was an hour and a half of practice, 
not all hard work; much of the time they 
would be paddling leisurely or resting on 
their oars while Mr. Burns coached them from 
the motor-boat ; or they would be studying the 
performance of their rivals, the Corinthians, 
on the farther side of the lake, and prowling 
about in the Corinthian neighborhood as un- 
assumingly as possible. 

But at the last there would be a racing 
start and a sprint that always brought them to 
the float with brown bodies glistening and fore- 
heads bedewed and chests heaving — so that the 
two buckets of water allowed each man seemed 
utterly inadequate, and they longed tremend- 
ously for the debilitating and forbidden swim ! 

Still, after they had made the most of their 
two buckets and had rubbed down and dressed 
and were seated again in the big open wagon, 
with the cool breeze drying their second 
sweat, they had no regrets — none at least if 
they had prepared that morning for the after- 
noon recitations to which now they were 
speedily whirled. 


162 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Edward enjoyed it all, though the race it- 
self with the Corinthians was disappointing. 
It had been generally predicted that the Cor- 
inthians would win, but not by a margin of 
about ten lengths ; they trailed the Pythians 
from the start. 

Edward, who rowed seven in the Pythian 
boat, the important position which Sheldon had 
vacated, was much cast down and wondered if 
he was more than one eighth to blame, and 
if after all he might not be given the expected 
place in the School boat. 

His misgivings proved unfounded; the dis- 
astrous break’’ in the Pythian boat had oc- 
curred behind him; numbers three and four 
caught crabs, and two weakened; in fact, the 
general opinion was that only Davis at stroke 
and Edward at seven had rowed in first-crew 
form. 

And they were the only ones from the 
Pythian crew to be chosen for the School 
boat; the other six were all Corinthians. Du- 
rant was stroke, Edward was put in at seven 
and Davis at six ; then followed five Corinth- 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 163 


ians in the same order in which they had rowed 
on their own club crew. 

Now the training became more severe ; the 
School crew, as thus made up, was much 
heavier than the Pythian crew had been ; and 
Durant called on them for harder work. But 
Edward was strong enough for that and liked 
it; there was a different feeling in the boat 
from what there had been in the Pythian; 
it was inspiring to be aware of the smooth- 
ness, the rhythm, the speed. It was a good 
crew. And they all grew browner every day, 
until you could tell a crew man at once by 
his color; beside him a member of the nine 
or a mere track athlete looked pale. 

There was one day of rest for the crew 
— the day when they with all the others of 
St. Timothy’s School accompanied the nine 
to St. John’s to witness the annual baseball 
game. 

Durant, who enjoyed the reputation of 
being the best-dressed boy in St. Timothy’s, 
and who was constantly endeavoring to raise 
the standard of those with whom he associated, 


164 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


conceived the idea of uniforming his crew for 
this occasion. 

A perquisite of membership in the crew was 
a white flannel coat, with S. T. S. worked in 
a red monogram on the breast-pocket ; no one 
had ever discovered any special usefulness for 
this garment except to be photographed in it. 
Durant, however, suggested that they invade 
St. John’s wearing these coats and white flan- 
nel trousers to match ; also red sashes and red 
neckties. The idea appealed to the crew ; and 
when on that morning they emerged in their 
dazzling raiment, they excited immense en- 
thusiasm. 

Wallace, who was to conduct the somewhat 
uncertain brass band, rushed up to them. 

You fellows must head the procession,” 
he exclaimed. We ’re not going to drive 
from the station all the way to the St. John’s 
field ; we ’re going to leave the barges at the 
big gate and march round their buildings and 
down to the field. You fellows must head the 
procession.” 

Just behind the band?” said Durant. 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 


165 


And Wallace laughed and answered, ‘^Oh, 
of course, just behind the band/’ 

They could not help admiring themselves 
and each other, and during the journey in 
the train Edward was mainly occupied in pre- 
serving the crease in his trousers and the un- 
wrinkled spotlessness of his coat. 

They lunched at a railway restaurant on 
sandwiches, pies, doughnuts, and bananas. 
Durant was a good deal disturbed about the 
possible consequences of such a diet, but as he 
found there was nothing else to eat, he over- 
came his scruples and indulged himself as 
freely as his men. 

At the railway station where they left the 
train there were a number of big wagons and 
barges waiting for them, — one decorated with 
red and white bunting. That was for the nine, 
and all the other boys stood round and watched 
the nine climb in. 

Edward gave a farewell squeeze to Keat- 
ing’s hand. 

Swat the ball a good one for me, Keat,” 
he said. 


166 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


“Don’t I wish I might ! ” answered Keating. 

He hopped on board ; Jim Payne climbed 
up beside the driver; and then Durant, who 
was to lead the cheering that afternoon, called 
for three times three for the nine. They were 
no sooner ended than the band burst out into 
a joyous blare, and the decorated barge trun- 
dled away before those in it could recognize 
the tune. 

The other barges followed so slowly that 
the nine were soon lost to sight. Edward sat 
looking out on either side with eager eyes. 

Soon they left behind the pretty white New 
England village ; the road ran between mead- 
ows and pastures and orchards and at last 
ascended a long slope. At the top of that, 
among the trees, the roofs and towers of St. 
John’s were revealed. 

Before a brick gateway, through which 
there was a view of green lawns and hand- 
some buildings, the barges stopped, and the 
boys got out and formed for their procession. 
First the band, then after an interval the 
crew, headed by Durant and Edward, num- 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 


167 


bers eight and seven respectively; after the 
crew the Sixth Form, then the Fifth, and so 
tapering down to the little boys at the end. 
They unfurled their red flags, the band struck 
up, and the procession moved. 

Inside the gate Edward saw the St. John’s 
buildings, arranged in a quadrangle about a 
smooth green which was shaded by great elms. 
Walled in and secluded on its hill-top, St. 
John’s was not like St. Timothy’s, which lay 
spread out and rambling in the open valley. 

It ’s a good-looking place, but I like ours 
better,” Edward said to Durant. 

But he did not give much thought to the 
buildings or the grounds, for there, swarming 
out of the two dormitories at the farther end 
of the triangle, came the St. John’s boys. 

St. Timothy’s marched straight up and 
passed as it were in review before them, while 
St. John’s crowded the dormitory steps and 
overflowed upon the lawn. The band was 
doing its best to render Marching through 
Georgia ; ” St. John’s clapped and laughed as 
it went by. 


168 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


But the crew awakened their greatest en- 
thusiasm and received instant recognition. 

Crew, hey, crew ! ” was the cry, taken up 
by one St. John’s boy after another, and 
finally shouted by all together. Crew, crew, 
crew ! ” 

There was great clapping, and the crew 
men took off their hats with the red hatbands 
and saluted politely. 

Edward caught a glimpse of his brother 
Charles in the top row on the steps, and 
Charles, catching Edward’s eye, thrust out his 
elbows and chest and gave a burlesque imita- 
tion of a cake-walk. 

The procession passed and swung out be- 
hind the dormitories into the road to the ath- 
letic field a quarter of a mile away. Already 
the St. Timothy’s nine was on the field prac- 
tising ; and as soon as the procession was mar- 
shalled to its place back of the first-base line, 
Durant, stepping out in front, hushed the 
band and called for the first great cheer for 
the nine. 

Just after that, the infield gave a demon- 


SHELDON’S SUCCESSOR 


169 


stration of their abounding vitality ; each one 
seemed to want to show how hard he could 
shoot the ball at Keating ; and Keating smoth- 
ered every throw in his big mitt with perfect 
confidence and nonchalance. 

Pretty soon down marched the St. John’s 
procession, also headed by a band. It went 
round behind the third-base line and was 
cheered by St. Timothy’s. Some of the boys 
broke away and ran over to welcome friends 
among the visitors ; Charles came up to Ed- 
ward. 

You ’re easy to find; my, but you’re 
conspicuous ! ” he said. Afraid of grass 
stains or spoiling the crease, that you stand 
up ? ” 

The taunt brought Edward down, and they 
sat together on the grass and talked. Edward 
complimented Charles on his nose in return for 
Charles’s pleasant words about his clothes. The 
St. John’s nine appeared and had their prac- 
tice ; Charles invited Edward to notice how 
superior they were at all points of the game. 
When at last St. Timothy’s took the field and 


170 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


Dinsmore, St. John’s short-stop, went to the 
bat, Charles scrambled to his feet. 

I ’m going back to my own side,” he said. 
From now on you ’re beyond the pale. But 
I ’ll see you after the game — in case you feel 
like seeing anybody! ” 


CHAPTER IX 


THE ELEVENTH INNING 

TN that first inning not a man for St. John’s 
reached first base, and St. Timothy’s were 
cheering gayly. But in turn their own batsmen 
did no better. Already it appeared that the 
game would be mainly a contest between 
the two pitchers, Bell and Jackson — the for- 
midable Jackson, who revealed himself to Ed- 
ward now as left-handed, and who seemed to 
reach up to a height of about ten feet and 
from that point hurl the ball down at the batter 
with terrific sharpness and speed. He struck 
out four men in the first three innings. 

I don’t believe he can last, just the same,” 
Payne said to Bell. Not at that speed.” 

While Jackson was striking out the St. 
Timothy’s hatters. Bell was forcing St. John’s 
to knock pop flies. In the fourth inning, how- 
ever, with one out, Jackson came to bat for 
St. John’s and drove the ball over Warren’s 


172 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


head in left field. Amid tremendous yelling 
from the third-base crowd he reached second 
base. 

Morton, the St. John’s captain, came to bat; 
until Jackson’s drive, he had made the only 
hit that had been secured by St. John’s. One 
strike was called on him ; then he sent a swift 
grounder which Blanchard at short-stop just 
failed to reach ; Jackson came tearing round 
third base and with all St. John’s screaming 
for him to go on raced for home. 

Warren’s throw in from left field was swift 
and true ; Payne crouched for it, but Jack- 
son flung himself feet first and touched the 
plate just before Payne fell on him with the 
ball. 

Instantly Payne leaped up and hurled the 
ball down to Blanchard who was covering 
second base, but that throw too was just a 
moment late: Morton was already there. One 
run for St. John’s, only one out, and Morton 
on second base : Bell took the ball and 
rubbed it viciously against his trouser-pads. 

The next batter made a neat little bunt that 


THE ELEVENTH INNING 


173 


brought Stearns rushing down from third 
base to field it ; he gathered it up all right 
and flung it on the run to Keating. It was a 
wild low throw ; Keating stretched for it and 
scooped it from the ground and then fell 
prone, but he had managed to hold his foot 
on the base just long enough. ‘^Out! ” cried 
the umpire, and St. Timothy’s clapped their 
first baseman for his plucky catch. 

But Morton had gone to third base on 
the play, and was now creeping back and 
forth on the third-base line, impatient to get 
home. 

Crowell, who tapped the plate with his bat, 
had struck out once before; but this time he 
hit the second ball pitched safely into right 
field, and Morton scored. The next batter 
went out on an easy fly to Keating ; and with 
the score two to nothing against them, St. 
Timothy’s went to bat. 

It was the weak end of their batting list, 
and yet the inning opened auspiciously. Dins- 
more at short-stop fumbled Warren’s grounder 
and let him reach first base. Stearns tapped 


174 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

the ball just a few feet in front of the plate 
and was thrown out; but it was a good sacri- 
fice; Warren ran down to second. Another 
sacrifice by Slade advanced him to third ; then^ 
with two out, Keating came to the bat. 

He had struck out the time before ; he did 
not mean to do that now. The first ball came 
straight at him ; he stood heroically still, he 
did not seek to dodge it ; and then it took a 
sudden curve and cut over the inside corner 
of the plate. 

Strike ! ” called the umpire ; and Keating 
pounded the plate with his bat. 

The next ball went wide ; Keating swung 
at the third and missed. Then came a high 
ball, too high, Keating thought, and let it go. 
— Strike three ! ” called the umpire, and Keat- 
ing could not refrain from giving him a re- 
proachful glance, and St. Timothy’s could not 
refrain from uttering a sympathetic murmur. 
And the score was still two to nothing in 
favor of St. John’s. 

So it was after the fifth inning, so it was 
after the sixth, so it was after St. John’s half 


THE ELEVENTH INNING 175 

of the seventh. Then Blanchard was first at 
hat for St. Timothy’s. 

We’ve got to score this inning, Blanche,” 
Jim Payne said to him imploringly as he 
picked out his bat. 

Blanchard made a response better than any 
words, for he hit the first ball hard at Jack- 
son’s feet ; it bounded past him and skipped 
over second base and out into centre field. 

Durant stood in front of the St. Timothy’s 
crowd and cried, ‘‘ Now, fellows, keep it going, 
keep it going till we score ! ” 

Before the cheer which he started could be 
finished, it was turned into a tremendous 
shout of joy, for Blanchard, the swiftest run- 
ner on the St. Timothy’s nine, had gone down 
to second on the next ball and reached it 
safely. Fred Bell was at the bat, Jim Payne 
and Harry Carr, the best batters St. Timothy’s 
had, were to follow. 

We’re going to score ! ” shouted Durant. 

Cheer, fellows ! Three times three ! ” 

And as before, that cheer was never fin- 
ished, for it was interrupted by a sharp crack. 


176 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


and then all St. Timothy’s were leaping, yell- 
ing, swinging their hats : it was a clean base 
hit into right field ; Blanchard came sprinting 
home, and on the throw in, the vain attempt 
to head him off. Bell ran to second. 

No one out, one run, and Jim Payne at the 
bat; here surely was where St. Timothy’s 
would tie the score. So at least Edward 
shouted exultantly into Lawrence’s ear while 
the cheering went on. 

Tie the score ! ” shrieked Lawrence. 

Here ’s where we win, you mean ! ” 

But Payne disappointed himself and all his 
supporters ; he hit the ball hard, but he drove 
it straight on a line into the short-stop’s 
hands, and only Bell’s nimbleness in getting 
back to second saved him from being the vic- 
tim of a double play. 

^^That was hard luck,” said Lawrence with 
exasperation. ^^A good clean hit like that! 
Harry Carr’s got to hit the ball — because if 
he does n’t Pollock never will.” 

Carr knocked a long fly which the left fielder 
caught ; and Bell was still on second base. 


THE ELEVENTH INNING 


177 


Cheer, fellows, cheer ! ’’ entreated Durant. 

Lawrence was obedient, but desisted long 
enough to say to Edward, ^^Now it’s up to 
the weak bunch again; I guess nothing but 
a miracle will bring Bell home.” 

Pollock was not a miracle exactly, but he hit 
a grounder that Wells, the St. John’s third 
baseman, had to run for. Wells picked it up 
cleanly, and then hurled it high over the first 
baseman’s head, and while St. Timothy’s 
went wild over this unexpected and unmerited 
gift and while St. John’s stood aghast. Bell 
came all the way home. With Pollock on sec- 
ond, Butler struck out; the seventh inning 
was ended and the score was two to two. 

In the eighth inning neither side got a man 
to first base. 

The ninth inning opened most disastrously 
for St. Timothy’s. Wells, the St. John’s third 
baseman, who had made the costly wild throw, 
came to the bat eager to redeem himself. He 
made a clean hit into right field ; it should 
have been good for only one base, but the 
wretched Slade let the ball go between his 


178 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


legs. Wells sped on to second base and then 
on to third ; Morton, who was coaching there, 
rushed out, and, embracing him, fairly held 
him upon the base. St. John’s were whooping 
and dancing ; St. Timothy’s were smitten into 
silence. 

Morton was next at bat, and after him came 
the other good batters for St. John’s ; the out- 
look was desperate. Wells stole cautiously 
down along the third-base line. Bell watched 
him anxiously, Jim Payne behind the bat 
thumped his big mitt nervously. Two balls 
were called, then a strike. 

Then Morton swung at the ball ; W ells saw 
it go in a high swift line towards right field, 
put down his head and ran for the plate. 

But just off first base Keating leaped and 
reached, and that swiftly-driven liner struck 
and stuck fast in his glove ; he turned and 
hurled the ball across the diamond to Stearns, 
a beautiful low throw ; and Stearns caught it 
and touched third base. Then there was a burst 
of shouting from St. Timothy’s and a most 
jubilant convulsion ; the voices of St. John’s 


THE ELEVENTH INNING 179 

were stilled 5 and the astounded Wells and the 
disappointed Morton walked glumly to their 
bench. Cose, the next batter, knocked up an 
easy fly which Payne caught, and St. John’s 
took the field. 

Keating was escorted in from first base to 
the plate by the band and by a crowd of 
friends, among them Edward, — all striving in 
the turmoil to express their gratitude and ad- 
miration. He was first at bat that inning, and 
Durant led a cheer with Keating’s name twice 
repeated at the end of it — after which, 
Keating as usual struck out. 

But he could be forgiven that many times 
over — for had he not snatched them all from 
the very jaws of defeat ? Blanchard and Bell 
each hit slow grounders and were thrown out at 
first; and still the score was tied. And at the 
end of the tenth inning it was still two to two. 

The crowd had become silent with excite- 
ment. Bell had been betraying signs of nerv- 
ousness and fatigue ; Jim Payne, from behind 
the bat, had obviously been working hard to 
steady him. But Jackson was still as swift 


180 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


and accurate as ever; as in the football game 
he seemed to be growing stronger all the time. 

In the eleventh inning Crowell for St. J ohn’s 
was given his base on balls. A moment later 
he stole second base. Bell was watching him 
over his shoulder ; suddenly he turned and 
threw the ball at Blanchard in the attempt to 
catch Crowell napping; but the throw went 
wild, the ball bounded out into centre field, 
and Crowell dashed on to third base. 

St. John’s had roused themselves again to 
a pitch of intense enthusiasm ; they were shout- 
ing incessantly. Fulton, their next batter, 
knocked a swift grounder to Keating, who 
picked it up cleanly, touched first base, and 
held Crowell on third. St.. Timothy’s shouted 
at that; these weren’t the best of the St. 
John’s batters; perhaps after all Crowell 
would n’t have a chance to score. 

That hope was ruined the next moment 
when Ramsay hit the ball just over Blanchard’s 
head. It was a miserable scratch little hit, the 
luckiest kind ; and over such a wretched thing 
St. John’s were howling like mad ! 


THE ELEVENTH INNING 


181 


Crowell dashed across the plate, and St. 
Timothy’s gazed at capering St. John’s in dumb 
resentment. The next batter struck out, the 
next went out on a fly, and the St. Timothy’s 
nine came in for their last effort. 

Warren stepped up to the bat. 

All the weak hitters,” groaned Lawrence 
to Edward. ^^If it was only Blanchard and 
Payne and that bunch ! ” 

Warren sometimes hits the hall,” said 
Edward. 

This was the occasion. Warren made a 
clean single to left field. Durant was leading a 
nine times nine cheer to put heart into Stearns, 
the next batter, when Jim Payne came rushing 
up, seized Edward by the arm, and dragged 
him over to the crew captain. 

I want Edward to bat for Keating this 
inning,” Payne cried. You’ve got to let him, 
Harry!” 

Don’t be foolish, Jim,” Durant answered, 
and Edward laughed at the absurd thought. 

I mean it; I have n’t time to argue with 
you.” Payne spoke warmly. Strike one ! ” 


182 THE CEASHAW BKOTHERS 


called the umpire ; Stearns was at the bat. 

There ! If Stearns strikes out ! He ’s got to 
advance Warren to second ! After him there 
are only Slade and Keating. We’ve got to 
have Edward in to hit the ball; it ’s our only 
chance.” 

He has n’t been practising, he might get 
hurt,” cried Durant. Three times three, fel- 
lows ; everybody cheer ! ” 

He ’ll have to take a chance,” Payne 
shrieked in Durant’s ear, while Durant was 
waving his arms. You’ve got to run the 
risk. If Stearns and Slade both go out, he ’s 
our only chance.” 

At that moment Stearns struck out, and 
there was a roar from St. John’s. 

Durant turned to Edward. ^^Do you want 
to do it ? ” he asked. 

Edward’s hands were cold. Yes,” he 
said. I ’d like to try.” 

Durant hesitated. Strike one! ” called the 
umpire ; Slade was at the bat. 

Go ahead then,” said Durant. 


CHAPTER X 


THE PINCH HITTER 

E dward ran with Payne to the players' 
bench. Keating was picking out his bat 
from the row on the ground ; Edward put his 
arm over his shoulder and said to him, — 
Keat, Jim wants me to bat for you.’’ 
Keating looked up, startled ; for just that 
instant he could not keep the disappointment 
from showing in his eyes. Then his face lighted, 
and he grasped Edward’s hand. 

A home run, Ned,” he said. You ’re the 
fellow for it.” 

Edward turned to Rigby, who was substi- 
tute catcher for Payne. 

What size shoes do you wear, Rigby ? ” he 
asked. 

Eight and a half. Why ? ” 

Let me have ’em, quick.” 

That was the first intimation the nine had 
that Edward was going into the game. They 


184 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


gathered closer and talked to him eagerly, tell- 
ing him about Jackson’s sharp inshoot ; mean- 
while, Edward knelt putting on Rigby’s shoes. 

Ball two ! ” 

^^Oh, if Slade can only get his base on 
balls ! ” breathed Blanchard. 

Strike two ! ” 

Then, as Jackson swung his arm, Warren, 
who had been dancing excitedly back and 
forth at first base, took a desperate chance; 
he dashed for second. The ball flew in across 
the plate; Striker out!” shouted the um- 
pire, and in the same moment the St. John’s 
catcher threw the ball to head Warren off. 
The throw was just a little wide of the base; 
and St. Timothy’s, breathless during W arren’s 
head-foremost slide, yelled joyfully when the 
umpire held his hand down signifying that 
the runner was safe. 

But the yell was as short as it was sharp ; 
Slade had struck out and was walking deject- 
edly away from the plate. There were two 
out, and Warren on second base seemed a 
long, long way from home. 


THE PINCH HITTER 


185 


Jackson received the ball, twisted it in his 
hands, and then stood with his hands on his 
hips waiting for the next batter to advance. 
He looked at Keating, but Keating sat cross- 
legged on the ground. 

Edward finished tying his shoe, threw off 
his white flannel coat, and picked out Payne’s 
bat — the bat which he had used when he had 
coached Keating. Then in his blue shirt and 
his spotless white trousers, with the red sash 
danghng at his waist, he walked to the plate. 

For one moment there was on both sides 
an amazed silence. Then St. Timothy’s began 
to clap, and from clapping they turned to 
cheering, with Durant leading them, — nine 
rahs and then, Crashaw ! ” at the end. 

From St. John’s there came not a sound — 
not a jeer. The moment was too critical ; and 
however inappropriate and absurd Edward’s 
costume appeared, there was something in his 
bearing as he stepped into the batter’s place 
that awakened their apprehension. 

Jackson twisted the ball in his hands and 
studied this unexpected apparition who stood 


186 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


there so firmly, so confidently. He gave Ed- 
ward a smile and a nod, which Edward re- 
turned; then instantly the faces of the two 
became serious, intent, watchful. The pitcher 
deliberated; somehow he felt that he was fac- 
ing a dangerous man. 

He sent one of his sharp inshoots against 
which Edward had been warned. It came at 
Edward shoulder high; Edward leaned back- 
ward, without stepping away from it, and let 
it pass : ^^Ball one! ” called the umpire. 

He might have allowed it to hit him ; but 
he had thought quickly when he dodged; his 
business was to drive in a run that would tie 
the score. 

He stepped forward at the second ball and 
hit hard; it curved out over third base be- 
yond the foul line, a long but unlucky hit, 
for being a foul it counted as a strike. Still, 
it gave Edward confidence to have met the 
ball so squarely and to have driven it on such 
a long low line. 

Guess my eye is all right,” he muttered 
to himself. 


THE PINCH HITTER 


187 


He stepped out of the batter’s box and 
waited for the throw in ; and then for the 
first time he glanced over at the St. John’s 
crowd. 

He saw his brother standing a step in ad- 
vance of the others, his hands thrust into his 
coat-pockets, his eyes fixed on him with an 
expression of intent anxiety ; and suddenly a 
thought flashed into Edward’s mind : He ’d 
be just as glad to see me hit the ball as I was 
to see him shoot that goal ! ” 

W aiting for the ball to be returned, he felt 
excitement tightening his muscles, so he low- 
ered his bat and swung his arms freely, limb- 
ering them up. Then it was time for him to 
step up to the plate again. 

The next ball was too high ; he let it pass. 
Then came one that promised to be good, 
and Edward swung at it, but it curved out so 
fat that he reached it only with the tip of his 
bat, and it fizzled off along the ground, — an- 
other foul. 

Strike two ! ” called the umpire. And St. 
John’s shouted then as if the game were won. 


188 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Edward^s heart was thumping; oh, if he 
should strike out ! Was he going to be a 
quitter again ! He clenched his teeth, he 
swallowed hard, he watched Jackson with 
sharpened and unwinking eyes. 

The ball came low; he stepped forward, 
and then let it pass without swinging his bat. 

Ball three ! cried the umpire, and St. 
Timothy’s shouted. 

Good waiting, Edward ! ” called Payne 
from the first-base coaching line, where he 
was shifting from one foot to the other in ex- 
citement. 

Good boy, Edward ! ” called Bell from 
the third-base coaching line, where he was 
pacing back and forth in agitation. 

Two strikes and three balls : it was a trying 
moment for every one. Jackson deliberated, 
shook his head at some signal from his catcher, 
settled himself twice into position. 

Edward was thinking quickly, trying to 
imagine what was passing through Jackson’s 
mind. With two strikes called on him. Jack- 
son would not intentionally give him his base 


THE PINCH HITTER 


189 


on balls — especially as Blanchard, a strong 
batter, would follow him. Rather than take a 
chance of giving him his base, would n’t Jack- 
son send him a straight ball — placing it as 
surely as possible right over the plate, trusting 
to the fielders if the batter hit it and to the 
umpire if the batter let it go? 

straight ball,” Edward decided. That ’s 
what nine men out of ten would send.” 

The ball came, straight for the plate, waist 
high. Edward stepped forward to it and 
swung with arms and shoulders and body; 
there was a crack that thrilled him ; he had a 
glimpse of the ball sailing on a long low flight 
between right and centre field ; he put down 
his head and ran. 

The St. Timothy’s roar swelled and grew; 
Edward had a blurred vision of them all danc- 
ing and waving flags, a glance at Payne on 
the coaching line yelling and waving him to 
go on; then with his head down again he 
rounded first base and made for second, and 
still the St. Timothy’s shout continued un- 
diminished. 


190 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Warren must be home by now; scorers 
tied/’ he thought exultantly. 

He glanced across the diamond at Bell on 
the third-base coaching line ; Bell was leaping, 
shouting, beckoning him with both arms to 
keep on, and all the background of the St. 
John’s crowd was still. 

So Edward touched second base and came 
in a wide arc down to third; he looked at 
Bell again expecting to see him motioning, 
Enough ! Hold the base ! ” 

But instead — could it be ? — had he really 
done the supreme thing? For Bell was still 
beckoning frantically, yelling frantically, and 
behind him there was still that solemn silence 
of St. John’s. 

He could hear what Bell was yelling : Home 
run ! Home run ! Home run ! ” And more and 
more tremendous grew the St. Timothy’s shout. 

So, panting, Edward touched third base and 
swept into the stretch for home. Bell racing 
by his side, yelling as he ran, Slide ! Slide ! 
You ’ve got to slide ! ” 

Edward glanced towards right field and at 


THE PINCH HITTER 


191 


the same instant the St. John’s shout of hope 
broke out behind him. For therein short right 
field their second baseman had just received 
the ball and had turned for the throw to the 
plate : Edward saw the ball leave his hand ; 
then he flung himself head-foremost, on his 
chest, with arms outstretched ; he felt his 
hands on the rubber plate, he felt the impact 
of the ball against his shoulder, and he heard 
the umpire shout, — 

« Safe!” 

Before he could rise to his feet he was en- 
veloped in a yelling swarm of St. Timothy’s 
boys, who pulled and hauled and hoisted him 
to their shoulders — a bewildered exhibit in 
soiled and dusty flannels and with a dirty 
face. 

Suddenly into the mob burst Durant, fight- 
ing his way. 

“ Put him down 1 ” commanded Durant, 
sternly, at the top of his voice. Put him 
down 1 ” 

His manner was so menacing that he was 
obeyed, and for a moment there was quiet. 


192 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Durant grasped Edward by the arm. Look 
here,” he said, did you hurt yourself ? ” 
Not so that I notice it,” answered Edward. 
That ’s lucky. While you ’re on my crew 
don’t you ever do anything like that again.” 

Edward grinned and said nothing, and then 
Durant stooped and caught him by the leg. 

Put him up, fellows ! ” he cried. Give 
a lift.” 

So, before Edward knew what was happen- 
ing, he was again up and riding on the shoul- 
ders of his friends, with flags and hats tossing 
about him and the band parading just ahead, 
blaring out a march, and the rest of St. Timo- 
thy’s School falling into column behind. So 
they swung about the field, zigzagging, ser- 
pentining,” while the St. John’s boys looked 
on gloomily. 

At last Edward begged to be put down. He 
stood for a few moments confused by the rush 
of boys round him who wanted to tell him 
how wonderful he was ; then he saw Charles 
waiting near by. So he broke away from his 
admirers and went to his brother ; and then 


THE PINCH HITTER 


193 


the boys, understanding, did not follow, but 
went on shouting, serpentining, towards St. 
John’s School. 

‘^Well!” said Charles. His eyes were 
twinkling. You ’ve spoiled your pretty white 
trousers ! ” 

I know it,” said Edward. But that ’s 
not the only thing I spoiled.” 

Charles threw up one arm and ducked be- 
hind it in exaggerated self-defence. 

You got back at old Jackson to-day, did n’t 
you ? ” he said with a grin. 

Yes, and if next week in the race I can 
get back at you, I ’ll feel that I ’ve squared my- 
self for that football game,” Edward replied. 

^^I’ve got nothing on you after to-day,” 
Charles admitted. Ned,” he said, breaking 
out suddenly into enthusiasm and slipping his 
hand inside his brother’s arm, that was the 
best thing I ever saw. You don’t know how 
proud I was ! When you hit that ball, I — it ’s 
perfectly silly, but something came in my 
throat and I had tears in my eyes — just be- 
cause I was so happy ! ” 


194 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


^^Did you feel that way, Charley?” Ed- 
ward looked at him with shy and grateful 
eyes. You know I caught a glimpse of you 
while I stood there at the bat, and I thought 
to myself that you ’d like to see me hit it. I 
— I wanted you not to be ashamed of me — 
here on your own grounds ! ” 

They both laughed a little ; then they 
walked together silently, arm in arm. 

The St. John’s spectators were strolling 
toward the School; they looked at Edward 
with respectful curiosity ; some of them, friends 
of Charles, sauntered up and were introduced ; 
they had a pleasant word of reproach for 
Edward. 

You see,” Charles said, when at a corner- 
of the big dormitory he and his brother 
stood at last alone, it ’s you who are the 
great man now, and they all want to look 
at you, in spite of the way you treated us. 
I guess it ’s a good thing I ’m not to be at 
St. J ohn’s much longer : I ’d find I was known 
just as the brother of the Crashaw at St. 
Timothy’s.” 


THE PINCH HITTEK 


195 


Edward punched him affectionately in the 
ribs. From the quadrangle beyond the corner 
of the dormitory came the shouts of St. Timo- 
thy’s and the music of the band, revelling joy- 
ously on St. John’s sacred ground. 

I suppose I ought n’t to keep you here 
with me,” said Charles reluctantly. You’d 
like to be out there with your crowd, heading 
the procession.” 

I don’t care anything about that ; I like 
to be with you.” 

They ’re cheering you,” said Charles. 

Listen.” 

Yes, they were shouting, Crashaw ! Cra- 
shaw ! Crashaw ! We — want — Crashaw ! ” 

You ’d better go to them,” said Charles. 

Edward hung back. Not yet.” 

He looked down toward the athletic field, 
veiled now by the long shadows from the en- 
circling trees. From the athletic house the 
barge decorated with red and white bunting 
was just starting out. 

^^Here come the nine,” said Edward. There 
will be cheering enough without me. I wish,’^ 


196 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


he added, some one would lead a cheer for 
Keating.” 

Which one was he — the fellow on first 
base ? ” 

Yes. He saved the game once for us, with 
that one-hand catch and double play. I ’m 
afraid that just because I took his place at 
the bat and had the luck to win the game, 
every one will forget what Keat did.” 

You can’t help that,” said Charles. You 
’re the hero of the occasion, and you can’t run 
away from it.” 

But I hope they ’ll give Keat a cheer,” 
Edward repeated. know he was disap- 
pointed when they put me in to bat for him. 
And he might have done just as much as 
I did.” 

Yes, he might.” Charles smiled. ‘‘ But I 
guess your captain showed good judgment, 
Ned. To think that you should ever have 
believed you were a quitter ! ” 

To Edward that exclamation was the best 
tribute of all. He was silent a moment, and 
then he said, — 


THE PINCH HITTER 


197 


It seems as if I could never feel quite so 
happy as I do now ; it makes me almost sad. 
And is n’t it absurd to be so well pleased with 
things — just because I belted a ball good 
and hard ! ” 

Ah well, there ’s more than that to it/’ 
said Charles. 

The barge came rattling up the avenue, 
and when the boys in it saw Edward standing 
with his brother behind the big elm, they 
raised a great shout. 

The driver reined in his horses; Jim Payne 
from the driver’s seat cried, ^‘You’ve got to 
ride with the nine now, Edward;” Keating 
and Warren jumped out and seized him. 

Just a moment,” Edward said. He grasped 
his brother’s hand. ^‘I’ll see you next week, 
Charley.” 

I will meet you at Philippi,” Charles re- 
plied. 

Edward was dragged into the barge, which 
swung then round the building and down 
toward the big quadrangle gate, where now 
the St. Timothy’s crowd was massed. There 


198 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


the barge had to halt; there was a tumultuous 
shouting, waving of hats, and blaring by the 
band. Durant scrambled up on one of the big 
gate-posts and led cheers for the captain 
and the nine, and last of all the fellow that 
saved the day, the crew man, Crashaw ! ’’ 

That brought out the most tremendous re- 
sponse ; and Edward was inspired to rise to 
his feet in the barge and stand there, and 
when the crowd understood that he wanted 
to say something they became quiet. 

Fellows,’’ Edward said, I ’m much ob- 
liged, but you don’t want to forget who saved 
you from being licked in the ninth inning; ” 
and suddenly he lifted Keating up by the col- 
lar of his coat, and held him on exhibition, 
while there was a great shout of approval 
from the crowd. 

Then Jim Payne from the driver’s seat 
stood up and said, want you fellows, just 
before you go, to join in a cheer for St. 
John’s.” And on the whole that was the 
loudest, the longest, the most reverberating 
cheer of all. 


THE PINCH HITTER 


199 


Then the barge was allowed to pass through 
the gate, the band struck up the St. Timothy’s 
song, the seven crew men fell in behind the 
band ; the procession started ; and in a few 
minutes the precincts of St. John’s were aban- 
doned to a becoming silence. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE BOAT RACE 

I N the next week there was an opportunity 
for Edward to have his head turned ; per- 
haps his father feared something of the kind. 

“I wish I could have seen your spectacular 
performance/’ wrote Mr. Crashaw. I ’m im- 
mensely pleased that you should have risen so 
adequately to the occasion. What I want to 
he sure of now is that you can measure up 
just as well to the long steady pull next week 
— where it ’s not merely a grand-stand play 
of the moment. Your mother and I have de- 
cided to go down to St. John’s and see the 
race. It is n’t so easy for us to decide how 
we ’ll cheer. I guess I will wait for her to 
make her choice, and then I ’ll choose the 
other.” 

The morning of the race came, a fine brac- 
ing morning, with a keen northwest wind. 
There was an early start from St. Timothy’s, 


THE BOAT EACE 201 

for the race was to be rowed at noon. The 
school had chartered a special train; when 
the boys arrived at the station to take it, there 
was Tom Sheldon to greet them. 

He rushed up to the crew men first of all, 
and shook hands and frolicked around them 
like a great overgrown, affectionate puppy; 
and then he turned his attention to his other 
friends. 

Yes, his tutor had said he was doing splen- 
didly and had thought he was entitled to 
this holiday ; gee ! but he had become the 
grind ; ten hours a day was nothing to such 
a student as he. But it was great to see them 
all again ; he had n’t minded a bit getting up 
at four that morning to make the connection 
with their train. 

Of course Sheldon had a seat in the parlor 
car with the crew ; but he left it after a while 
to visit the other cars and shake hands with the 
little boys. 

When he came back, however, he settled 
down for a serious talk with Durant ; they had 
their heads together for some time, and it was 


202 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


apparent that Durant was outlining a plan and 
that Sheldon was favorably impressed. 

“ They ’re fit ; I can see it/’ Sheldon ex- 
claimed at last. And the huskiest, strongest 
set of fellows that ever pulled in a St. Timothy’s 
boat. Man for man, they’re stronger right 
through than St. John’s.” 

He glanced up and saw that Edward, who 
had heard the last words, was looking at him 
with eager eyes. 

^^Now there’s Edward — ” and Sheldon 
reached over and pinched his leg. He took 
Keating’s place at the bat, and he ’s taken my 
place in the boat — whenever Edward takes any- 
body’s place it means trouble for St. John’s.” 

Edward laughed, but such an expression of 
confidence pleased him. 

^^Do you feel as if you could hold a 
sprinting stroke all the way from the start, 
Edward?” asked Durant. 

^^Yes. Why?” 

We ’re going in to row St. John’s down — 
wear ’em out. We’ve a stronger set of men 
and I’m going to set a killing pace — if you 


THE BOAT RACE 


208 


think you can back me up in it. Thirty-eight 
to the minute to begin with, and never lower 
than thirty-six.” 

That ’s all right,” said Edward. 

It was not altogether a surprise to him, the 
announcement of these tactics ; in the last week 
of practice Durant had been testing his crew 
pretty severely, and they were all hoping that 
he would let them attempt this very thing ; 
they were all confident of their strength and of 
their ability to row St. John’s down. Whereas, 
if they did not take the aggressive at the 
outset and maintain it, but let their opponents 
set the pace, they might not have at the end 
the sprinting power of the lighter and — from 
what news had come to them — the more fin- 
ished crew. So now that the word was passed 
round that it was to be a row-down from the 
start, they were all elated. 

Besides,” said Davis, pointing to the trees 
which were swaying in the wind, ^^it looks 
like St. Timothy’s weather.” 

Yes,” said Durant. A little rough water 

will be a good thing.” 


204 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


It was almost noon when, after a three- 
mile drive from the railroad station, the St. 
Timothy’s crew arrived at the St. John’s boat- 
house — a pretty red-shingled building, with 
low sloping roof arched over by great wil- 
lows. 

In the wide doorway the St. John’s crew 
waited to welcome the visitors, all but Charles, 
who was standing off under the willows with 
his father and mother. Edward alighting from 
the barge ran up to them, and for a moment 
the Crashaw family forgot all about the 
crews. 

Which side of the lake are you going 
to see the race from ? ” asked Edward. St. 
Timothy’s or St. John’s?” 

Dear me, how are we to decide ! ” ex- 
claimed Mrs. Crashaw. 

There is really a better view from the St. 
Timothy’s side,” Charles said magnanimously. 
^^You see up here we’re always polite and 
give the visitors the best of everything.” 

All right,” said Mr. Crashaw. We ’ll join 
the visitors.” 


THE BOAT RACE 


205 


We ’re going to cheer for whoever is be- 
hind/’ said Mrs. Crashaw. 

Edward and Charles accompanied them to 
the path which led round the end of the lake 
and up to the open hillside where St. Timothy’s 
were assembled. Then the two boys hurried 
back to the boat-house. 

Already the others were undressing ; by the 
float the launch was in readiness to take the 
crews to the upper end of the lake where the 
start was to be made. 

The fresh breeze came whipping through 
the open doors of the boat-house ; the lake was 
rippling under it, hut the decision of the 
referee had been that it was not too rough to 
race. 

A head wind too,” murmured Durant to 
Edward gleefully, as they bent over side by 
side lacing up their canvas shoes. 

The crews put their shells into the water 
and fastened them to the launch ; then they 
wrapped their blankets round them and stepped 
aboard. 

Slowly the launch swung away ; and from 


206 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


the partisans on either shore there was a shout ; 
red flags waved on the eastern hill and blue 
on the western; and then there rolled out 
the long St. Timothy’s cheer, followed by the 
quicker, sharper St. John’s. 

Edward, wrapped in his warm red blanket 
and sitting in the sun, shivered with excite- 
ment. Beside him Sheldon sat and talked 
reminiscently. 

“It was just there two years ago that they 
took their spurt when we ’d held ’em neck and 
neck all the way,” he said, pointing to a big 
boulder which rose out of the water a hundred 
feet or so from the eastern shore. “ And they 
had just a little more left in them than we had, 
to spurt with. But it won’t be so to-day.” He 
lowered his voice still further. “Some of ’em 
look a little too fine. Your brother — is n’t he 
sort of drawn and pale ? ” 

“ Oh, I guess not,” Edward answered. But 
he had had the same thought the moment 
when he had first seen Charles ; and somehow 
Sheldon’s corroboration of that thought was 
unwelcome. 


THE BOAT KACE 


207 


Sheldon, however, seemed not to imagine 
that it could be so and continued, — 

I ’m pretty sure he is. One or two of the 
others look the same way, only not quite so 
much.’’ 

Edward glanced at Charles again uneasily; 
Charles was talking with Davis and Durant 
and seemed in high spirits, and with his face 
laughing and lighted up he had no longer the 
look which had prompted Sheldon’s comment. 

So Edward dismissed the uneasiness from 
his mind, and sat trying to strengthen and 
nerve himself for the ordeal instead of worry- 
ing over his brother’s fitness for it. 

He stretched himself out on the deck of 
the launch and gazed off at the St. Timothy’s 
shore ; already they were leaving the shouting 
crowd and the waving banners far behind. 
A few were clambering along the hillside, in- 
tent on establishing themselves some distance 
from the finish, so that they might run down 
with the crews ; soon the trees that grew close 
to the edge of the water hid even these from 
Edward’s view. 


208 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


The lake widened, the shores grew more 
wooded; Edward relaxed all his muscles and 
closed his eyes. Gradually the talk of the 
others quieted; they were approaching the 
starting-point, and that meant a general tend- 
ency toward silence. 

Get ready, fellows,” said Durant at last. 

Edward stood up with the others and with 
them let drop his blanket. They all stood there 
stripped to the waist, sixteen of them, brown 
and strong. The two coxswains, who were just 
as lightly clad, looked puny in the midst of 
them. 

The St. Timothy’s crew brought their boat 
alongside first and got into it, then paddled 
off and waited for St. John’s. Pretty soon both 
boats were lined up for the start ; the oarsmen 
slid forward with oars at the full reach and 
waited for the word. 

Ready, St. Timothy’s ? ” shouted the re- 
feree from the launch. 

Yes, sir,” replied Durant. 

I wish he ’d hurry,” thought Edward ; it 
was like sitting for the photographer to take 


THE BOAT KACE 


209 


one’s picture and feeling that one could n’t hold 
still another moment. The referee was very 
deliberate. 

Are you ready, St. John’s?” 

^^Yes, sir.” 

The pistol glittered in the sunlight, there 
was a puff and a crack, and the oars swept 
through the water. 

They had taken four strokes when Gardner, 
the St. Timothy’s coxswain, shouted, — 

“We ’re leading ’em ! We ’ ve got the start ! ” 

With the head wind and the rough water 
Durant was setting a stroke for his crew of 
thirty-five to the minute — which was really as 
severe as thirty-eight would have been under 
normal conditions. 

“Let me know if they ’re hanging to us,” 
he said to the coxswain. 

“ Yes, right where they were,” cried Gard- 
ner. “ They ’re half a length behind — but 
they ’re not falling behind. — Stroke, fellows, 
stroke, stroke ! ” 

So he shouted to help them with the rhythm, 
leaning forward with each shout. 


210 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


Edward, just behind Durant, was feeling all 
the exhilaration of a good start. The muscles 
that had seemed quivering and flabby just be- 
fore the referee had raised the pistol were now 
working smoothly, strongly ; already the pulse 
that had been beating too hard was quieting. 
He did not once take his eyes from Durant’s 
back. He wished he could look out and see 
what kind of a stroke Charles was setting, 
but he would not indulge that brotherly 
interest. 

A humorous thought came to console him : 

When we get far enough ahead I ’ll be able 
to sneak a look.” 

In spite of the cool breeze the perspiration 
was springing on his face and neck ; the sun 
was beating down with a sudden surprising 
warmth ; for all the intentness of his gaze at 
Durant’s sinewy brown back, he was conscious 
of the glare on the water. Gardner was chant- 
ing monotonously, — 

Stroke — stroke — they ’re just where 
they were, fellows — stroke — stroke — they ’re 
not gaining any — stroke — stroke — half- 


THE BOAT KACE 


211 


way down we T1 drop them, I guess — stroke 
— stroke.” 

How far have we gone now ? ” breathed 
Durant, after a time. 

Just about a quarter of the course,” an- 
swered the coxswain. 

“ Fellows all look strong ? ” 

^^Fine,” said Gardner. 

All right ; we ’ll keep right on,” mur- 
mured the captain. 

They reached the mile mark, the halfway 
point ; the coxswain continued to report, 
‘‘ They ’re hanging on, just where they were; 
we don’t shake ’em off.” His voice was get- 
ting more excited, more anxious. The shouts 
of the distant spectators came faintly to their 
ears — the shouts from both shores blending 
and indistinguishable. The pull was begin- 
ning to wear on Durant’s crew ; Edward was 
breathing hard, and he heard Davis’s measured 
grunts behind him. 

Durant muttered something to the cox- 
swain ; the coxswain through the megaphone 
strapped to his mouth interpreted it to the crew. 


212 THE CKASHAW BROTHERS 


Anybody that thinks he can’t keep this 
pace up for a mile more better speak.” 

No one spoke. 

You ’re all smooth enough,” the coxswain 
added reassuringly. “ They ’re lapping us still 
— but we ’ll leave ’em pretty soon now.” 

In a few moments the St. Timothy’s cheer 
reached them, faint but clear. 

There ! ” cried Gardner. They see we ’re 
ahead. Even way down there they know ! 
Whoop it up, fellows; whoop it up — only 
three quarters of a mile to go ! ” 

Then came even more distinctly the St. 
John’s cheer; and then again both St. John’s 
and St. Timothy’s together, and so much 
louder that Edward felt sure both crowds 
must be rushing up along the banks. He was 
sure of it a moment later ; he heard yelling 
and shouting abreast of him on either side ; 
they had reached the advanced guard of the 
spectators, and from now on they would be 
accompanied by the stimulus of shouts and 
cheers all the way. 

Half a mile more only ! ” cried Gardner 


THE BOAT KACE 


213 


shrilly. They ’re still lapping us ! It ’s a 
great race, fellows ; clinch her right here ! 
Stroke — stroke — stro — Hi ! Hi ! We ’re 
leaving ’em — they ’re not lapping us any 
more — four ’s splashing — and stroke — look 
at stroke ! — No, don’t look at him, keep on 
rowing, keep on. Keep — ” 

What’s the matter?” Durant and Ed- 
ward jerked the question out in the same 
breath, and in that instant there was a sud- 
den outburst from St. Timothy’s compared to 
which all the cheers heretofore had been but 
as melancholy ululation. 

He ’s groggy ! ” shrieked Gardner through 
the megaphone. Their stroke ’s groggy ! He 
was splashing — their coxswain ’s throwing 
water on him — he’s slumped on his oar — 
no, he ’s sitting up again — yes, he ’s quit — 
he’s quit — look, they’ve all quit! We’ve 
rowed ’em down, we ’ve rowed ’em down — 
Hi-i-i-i!” 

There was no keeping eyes in the boat then, 
least of all for Edward. Amid the wild, de- 
lighted shouts from the St. Timothy’s shore, 


214 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 

Durant slackened the stroke while he and all 
his crew gazed at the St. John’s boat drifting 
astern. The St. John’s crew were resting on 
their oars, all but the stroke, who had col- 
lapsed utterly and seemed to have fallen for- 
ward almost against the coxswain. 

He ’s a dead one ! ” screamed Gardner in 
his juvenile jubilation ; he was only a Third 
Former after all. He ’s passed away ! He ’s 
all in!” 

Shut up ! ” commanded Durant savagely. 

Have n’t you any sense ? ” 

Gardner subsided, with a stricken glance at 
Edward ; for the time being he had forgotten 
entirely who the St. John’s stroke was. Ed- 
ward had been slow to take in all the disaster 
to his brother ; it had for the moment stupe- 
fied him. Now he rowed mechanically, and 
suddenly his eyes filled with tears. Poor 
Charles 1 To have a thing like that happen 1 
After all his brilliant record at St. John’s, to 
finish off with this I 

With what? A sudden appalling thought 
cleft Edward to the soul. Charles was huddled 


THE BOAT RACE 215 

there motionless ; St. John’s were not even 
trying to row ; what had happened ? 

I ’m afraid — ” Edward gulped, panic was 
in his voice, but he went on rowing steadily 
while he spoke to Durant. I ’m afraid maybe 
it ’s serious.” 

Oh no.” Durant spoke cheerfully. One 
or two of the others are almost as done up — 
I could see. He just rowed himself out, that ’s 
all. See, the launch is coming up to take him 
on board ; he ’ll be all right.” 

That might be true, but Edward could not 
help being apprehensive, and the thought of 
how his mother must be feeling, and his father 
too, with no one at hand to relieve their anxi- 
ety, disturbed him still more. And meanwhile 
along the shore St. Timothy’s were following 
their now leisurely rowing crew, waving flags 
and hats and yelling as if it was the most ex- 
citing finish that ever was. 

Edward wished they would n’t cheer ; it 
seemed heartless, and it must hurt his mother 
even more than it did him, to be there and 
suffering in the midst of it all. 


216 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


He saw Charles lifted from the shell into 
the launch, a limp figure. Then, just as the 
St. Timothy’s boat crossed the line, the beaten 
crew again took up their oars. They came on, 
accompanied by the launch, and from the St. 
John’s shore, which had so long been silent, 
was evoked a gallant cheer for the vanquished. 

The victors paddled up to the float and 
there sat awaiting the St. John’s crew. Ed- 
ward glanced off at the St. Timothy’s shore, 
but he could not anywhere see his father or 
his mother. St. Timothy’s were not done yet 
with waving their flags and shouting ; but as 
the defeated crew of seven men approached 
the finish line, St. Timothy’s paused in their 
shouting and instead began to clap. So, ap- 
plauded by friends^ and foes alike, St. John’s 
rowed to the float. 

They were a tired-looking set of fellows ; 
they saluted St. Timothy’s with melancholy 
smiles, and Braddock, their captain, said 
chokily, — 

‘‘Durant, you were too strong for us, — 
congratulations.” 


THE BOAT KACE 


217 


Thank you/’ said Durant. I hope Cra- 
shaw ’s all right ? ” 

There was no answer to that question, for 
just then the launch came up, and the oars- 
men got out on the float and lifted their shells 
from the water. Edward saw his brother 
wrapped in a blanket leaning against Shel- 
don’s shoulder, looking very white ; but it was 
enough for Edward that he was sitting up, 
and smiling, even though so sadly. 

Edward and Sheldon helped him to walk 
across the float into the boat-house ; Edward 
felt almost ashamed of the healthy rugged 
brownness of his skin beside the grayish pal- 
lor of Charles’s face. 

In a corner of the house Charles lay down. 

I ’m getting better,” he., said. I ’ll be all 
right in a little while. Go off and get dressed, 
everybody ; please don’t bother with me.” 

They saw that he meant it ; Edward knew 
that for the time being Charles did not want 
even him around. So he drew Sheldon aside 
and said, — 

^^Tom, would you mind hunting up my 


218 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


father and mother and telling them he ’s all 
right ? They were on the St. Timothy’s side ; 
I guess they ’re hanging round near the boat- 
house now. My father ’s a big man in a gray 
suit ; he has a brown moustache. My mother ’s 
a little woman in a blue dress with white dots 
on it.” 

^^I’ll find them,” said Sheldon. 

After he had gone, Edward stripped and 
poured bucket after bucket of water over him- 
self ; it was refreshing not to have to stint 
one’s self any longer in one’s bath. Somebody 
touched him on his bare shoulder, and he 
turned to see Charles, stripped also, standing 
there. 

Pour a couple on me, will you ? ” said 
Charles. That ’s all I need to brace me up.” 

Edward doused him and rubbed him down ; 
the color had begun to come back into his 
face. 

^^How you feeling, Charley?” called Brad- 
dock, who was putting on his clothes. 

^^Well enough to wonder why I should 
have passed away,” answered Charles gloomily. 


THE BOAT RACE 


219 


If you had n’t when you did, there are 
two or three of us who ’d have dropped a mo- 
ment later,” said Braddock. “No use talking, 
Charley; we were up against a wonderful 
rough- weather crew — well,” — he glanced 
humorously at Durant, — “ let ’s just say, a 
wonderful crew.” 

Then others cut in and began to talk about 
the race — how under the circumstances it 
was n’t possible for St. John’s to have rowed 
otherwise than as they did; how they could 
never have overtaken St. Timothy’s if they 
had allowed them to win a great lead at the 
start, and so on. 

Charles muttered to Edward, “They’re 
just trying to make it easy for me ; ” and 
Edward remembered the football game of the 
autumn and how after it he had had that 
thought. 

“ What happened to you anyhow ? ” Ed- 
ward asked. “ I thought before the race you 
looked over-trained.” 

“ I suppose I was a little. I was just trying 
to keep up with you fellows, and it came 


220 THE CEASHAW BEOTHERS 


harder and harder, and at last, what with the 
way my lungs and heart were pumping, it 
seemed as if I just could n’t pull another stroke. 
But I did pull a little longer, and then sud- 
denly I collapsed; our coxswain threw water 
on me and that brought me to, and I made 
another stab with my oar and caught cramps 
in my arms and my legs, and then I don’t 
know — I just seemed to die.” 

It must have been ghastly,” said Edward. 

This is almost the worst of it,” answered 
Charles. ^^To face the crowd and know that 
I ’m the one ! I guess I ’ve been too lucky 
while I’ve been here; I guess maybe it’s a 
good thing something like this happened to 
me at the last.” He was silent while he fin- 
ished lacing up his shoe. Then he stood up 
and took Edward’s arm and said, Well, old 
man, you got even with me for that football 
game, didn’t you?” 

^^I know now just how you felt when you 
said you did n’t enjoy winning that game a 
bit,” said Edward softly. 

‘^Ah, but you oughtn’t to feel that way. 



LOOKING AT HIM WITH A TREMBLING SMILE 






THE BOAT RACE 


221 


You did n’t do it to me — the way I did it 
to you. And you fellows rowed a great race ; 
you ought to feel like celebrating — you 
ought n’t to feel any other way. Just think ! 
You’re the only St. Timothy’s crew that 
ever rowed St. John’s to a standstill ! ” 

It ’s just that that I don’t feel like cele- 
brating,” said Edward. guess mother and 
father are waiting to see you, Charley.” 

They were indeed ; they were waiting with 
Sheldon just outside the boat-house, and near 
by were waiting a great throng of boys of 
both schools too. 

When Edward and Charles emerged, Mrs. 
Crashaw started forward, with lips quivering 
and shining eyes ; she caught Charles in her 
arms. 

^^My poor boy, my poor dear boy!” she 
murmured ; she could n’t go on, she felt that 
in the presence of all those staring big and 
little boys she must control herself ; so she 
bit her lip and pressed his hand and stood 
looking at him with a trembling smile. 

He pressed hers in answer and said, Thank 


222 THE CRASHAW BROTHERS 


you, mother.” Then his eyes twinkled across 
at his father and he said, But have n’t you 
a single word for Edward, either of you ? ” 
At that moment Blanchard in the crowd 
of onlookers shouted, Now then, St. John’s 
and St. Timothy’s both together, three times 
three for the Crashaw brothers ! One, two, 
three ! ” 

Out the crowd came with it joyously, nine 
rahs and then — Crashaw brothers ! ” 

That was almost the best thing that had 
ever happened to them, the two boys thought. 
Perhaps there was one thing that day that they 
liked better ; that was at the railway station 
when their father said, just before bidding 
them good-bye, — 

You boys have gone away to rival schools 
and fought each other, and it seems to me 
it ’s only made you care the more for each 
other. I ’m proud of you both. I don’t know 
which is the better boy — or which is the 
better school.” 


I 



Siitaeri^ibe 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 


U . S . A 


BOOKS BY ANDY ADAMS 


“ Mr. Adams’s books are a unique contribution to the 
history of the country.” Boston Transcript. 

REED ANTHONY, COWMAN 

The autobiography of a cowboy, giving an interesting 
insight into the old-time cattle business. 

THE LOG OF A COWBOY 

“ Breezy, natural, entertaining and racy of the soil.” 

Chicago Record-Herald. 

Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. 

A TEXAS MATCHMAKER 

“ A rattling good story, full of fun and the spirit of out- 
of-doors.” San Francisco Argonaut. 

Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. 

THE OUTLET 

“ A splendid description of a cattle-drive, vivid and 
well written.” New York Life. 

Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. 

CATTLE BRANDS 

“ Clever, original and highly amusing tales.” 

Boston Transcript. 
Each of the above, $1.50. 


HOUGHTON 

MIFFLIN 

COMPANY 



BOSTON 

AND 

NEW YORK 


FARMING IT 

By HENRY A. SHUTE 


There is nothing funnier in Mark Twain.” 

Grand Rapids Herald. 

“ Every man and woman who lives, or ever has lived, 
in the country will appreciate the situations described. 
. . . They are funny enough to disturb the calm of the 
most serious countenance.” — Boston Globe. 

** Includes more fun than is concealed in all his other 
books taken together.” — Living Age. 

*‘The book is extraordinarily frank . . . spicy and 
enlivening.” — Baltimore News. 

“ A wholesome and invigorating sort of book. ... A 
real story of real life cheerfully narrated.” 

New York Times. 


Fully illustrated by Reginald B. Birch 
1 2 mo. $1.20 net. Postage 12 cents 


HOUGHTON 

MIFFLIN 

COMPANY 



BOSTON 

AND 

NEW YORK 


TRUE THRILLING TALES 


Adrift on an Ice-Pan 

By WILFRED T. GRENFELL 

“ The adventure, as romantic as anything in fiction, is narrated 
with great charm and with characteristic modesty. The doctor’s 
sensations when he found himself face to face with death are 
of singular interest, and his description of the conduct of his 
faithful dogs is pathetic in the extreme. It is a book to warm 
one’s heart.” — Boston Globe. 


Illustrated from Photographs 
Narrow i2mo, 75 cents net. Postpaid 83 cents 


Stickeen: The Story of a Dog 

By JOHN MUIR 

“ There have been no end of dog stories of power and interest, 
but this is not a work of fiction ; it is the interested study and 
appreciation of a strange little animal, by one who is not inclined 
to be sentimental in his views. . . . The record is told with such 
simplicity and force that it may easily become a classic among 
books dealing with nature studies.” — St. Louis Glohe-Democrat. 

Narrow i2mo, 60 cents net. Postpaid 68 cents 


HOUGHTON 

MIFFLIN 

COMPANY 



BOSTON 

AND 

NEW YORK 


Dr^ Tomlinson^s Books 

The American boy will never tire of reading 
tales of the early colonial days and especially of 
the desperate encounters and struggles of the col- 
onists with the natives of the forest. 

Dr. Tomlinson has read widely and has collected 
a mass of incident through family tradition and 
otherwise, which he has skillfully incorporated in 
the historical frameworks of several exceedingly 
interesting and instructive stories. He has the 
knack of mixing history with adventure in such a 
way as to make his young readers absorb much in- 
formation while entertaining them capitally. His 
historical tales are filled with an enthusiasm which 
it is well to foster in the heart of every healthy- 
minded and patriotic American boy. 

The plots are all based upon events that actually 
occurred ; and the boy heroes play the part of men 
in a way to capture the hearts of all boy readers. 
Dr. Tomlinson shows scrupulous regard for the 
larger truths of history, and the same care that 
would naturally go into a book for older readers. 


The Boys of Old Monmouth 

A Story of Washington’s campaign in New Jersey 
in 1778. 


A Jersey Boy in the Revolution 

This story is founded upon the lives and deeds of 
some of the humbler heroes of the American Revolu- 
tion. 


In the Hands of the Redcoats 

A tale of the Jersey ship and the Jersey shore in 
the days of the Revolution. 


Under Colonial Colors 

The story of Arnold’s expedition to Quebec j of war, 
adventure, and friendship. 


A Lieutenant Under Washington 

A tale of Brandywine and Germantown. 


The Rider of the Black Horse 

A Spirited Revolutionary story following the adven- 
tures of one of Washington’s couriers. 


The Red Chief 

A story of the massacre at Cherry Valley, of Brant, 
the Mohawk chief, and of the Revolution in upper New 
York state. 


Marching Against the Iroquois 

An exciting story based on General Sullivan’s expedi- 
tion into the country of the Iroquois in 1779. 


The Camp-Fire of Mad Anthony 

This story covers the period between 1774 and 1776 
and follows the adventures of the Pennsylvania troops 
under “ Mad Anthony ” Wayne. 

Mad Anthony's Young Scout 

A Story of the winter of 1777-1778. 


Each volume, illustrated, crown 8vo, $1.50. At all 
booksellers. Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the 
publishers. 


Houghton Mifflin Company 

Boston and New York 


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